Heart-Friendly Cities for Women

It seems like there all of sorts of rankings for cities, but here’s an unusual one: the most heart-friendly cities for women. And no, this isn’t about love; it’s about health. The American Heart Association puts Minneapolis (left), Washington, D.C., and San Francisco at the top of the list.

As part of association’s “Go Red for Women” campaign, Sperling’s BestPlaces, which ranks the best places to live in the United States, looked at 200 cities and analyzed 22 factors affecting women’s heart health, including cardiovascular mortality rates, high blood pressure, exercise, smoking, stress levels and the numbers of people who commute by bicycle or on foot.

The top five most heart-friendly metro areas for women are:

1. Minneapolis/St. Paul/Bloomington, Minn.
2. Washington, D.C./Arlington/Alexandria, Va.
3. San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland, Calif.
4. Denver/Aurora, Colo.
5. Boston/Cambridge/Quincy, Mass.

The least-friendly metropolitan areas for women are:

1. Nashville/Davidson/Murfreesboro, Tenn.
2. St. Louis, Mo.
3. Detroit/Warren/Livonia, Mich.
4. Pittsburgh, Pa.
5. Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington, Texas

Read more about the study at the American Heart Association.