Tampa among top 20 most fit cities in US

The American College of Sports Medicine's annual American Fitness Indexranks the Tampa Bay area 19th on the list, up 7 spots from last year.

The AFI report takes into account factors including residents' mental health, physical activity, diet, smoking rate, mortality rate, and more. It also looks at the resources available to locals, like walking trails, rec centers, and farmer's markets.

The study says that the fittest areas are Minneapolis-St. Paul followed by Washington D.C.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, ranked 19th in the 2017 report with a score of 54.1 (out of 100 possible points).

The report lists both Tampa Bay's areas of excellence as well as the areas that need to see improvement:

Areas of Excellence (at or better than target goal):
•  Higher percentage consuming 3+ vegetables per day
•  More ball diamonds per capita
•  More dog parks per capita
•  More basketball hoops per capita
•  More park units per capita
•  More recreation centers per capita
•  More swimming pools per capita
•  Higher park-related expenditures per capita
•  Higher level of state requirement for Physical Education classes

Improvement Priority Areas (worse than 20% of target goal):
•  Higher percentage currently smoking
•  Higher percentage with asthma
•  Higher percentage with high blood pressure
•  Higher percentage with angina or coronary heart disease
•  Higher percentage diagnosed with a stroke
•  Higher percentage with diabetes
•  Higher death rate for diabetes
•  Lower percentage of parkland as city land area
•  Fewer acres of parkland per capita
•  Fewer farmers’ markets per capita
•  Lower percentage using public transportation to work
•  Lower percentage bicycling or walking to work
•  Fewer tennis courts per capita

Here is the list of the top 20 fit cities in the U.S. in 2017:

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
2. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
5. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
6. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
7. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
8. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
9. Salt Lake City, UT
10. San Diego-Carlsbad, CA
11. Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade, CA
12. Austin-Round Rock, TX
13. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT
14. Raleigh, NC
15. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
16. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
17. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
18. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
19. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
20. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD

To view the rankings and individual metro data click here.