Healthiest Cities Announced - Did Yours Make the List?

While our health is largely reliant on the effort we put into it -- eating healthfully, exercising regularly, and getting proper medical care -- our environment can make a big impact on our health. Economic considerations and the structure of a city are just two components that can affect health.

The CDC does an annual health survey that asks city residents to rate their overall health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. And while the CDC itself doesn't (quote-unquote) rank cities based on their surveys, their database does order the cities based on the results.

When all self-reported ratings are considered, Lincoln, Nebraska gets top honors -- 92.8% of residents state their health is good or better. Huntington, West Virginia comes in last on the 184-city list -- nearly half of the adults in Huntington are obese, but the mayor (who recently lost 80 pounds) says that the city's economic woes are of greater focus.

The top five cities are:

• Lincoln, NE
• Fargo, ND-MN
• Boulder, CO
• Burlington-South Burlington, VT
• Ogden-Clearfield, UT

The five cities that came in last are:

• Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
• Mobile, AL
• McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
• Laredo, TX
• Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH (Metropolitan area)

This year's list of cities is a bit confusing as some reports listed Burlington, Vermont as the healthiest -- but that's using 2006 data.