It’s the beginning of January, and you know what that means. Millions of Americans are hitting the gyms and pavement to make good on their New Year’s resolutions for a healthier, more active lifestyle.
Statistics indicate that 30% of American adults make New Year’s resolutions, with “more exercise” as the most common goal. Unfortunately, the data indicates that less than 10% will follow through.
If you’ve made a resolution to get fit — or if fitness has been a goal of yours for some time — it helps to live in a place with good infrastructure and ample opportunities for exercise. With that in mind, WalletHub just released a report on 2026’s Best & Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyle.
In order to determine the best cities for an active lifestyle, WalletHub compared the 100 most populated U.S. cities across two key dimensions, “Budget & Participation” and “Sports & Outdoors.”
We evaluated those dimensions using 35 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for a physically active population. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), we used the square root of the population to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.
Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its Active Lifestyle Score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. In determining our sample, we considered only the city proper in each case, excluding cities in the surrounding metro area.
Best Cities for an Active Lifestyle
1. Honolulu, HI
2. New York
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Los Angeles, CA
6. Las Vegas, NV
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Cincinnati, OH
9. Denver, CO
10. Madison, WI
Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyle
91. North Las Vegas, NV
92. Winston-Salem, NC
93. Newark, NJ
94. Corpus Christi, TX
95. Hialeah, FL
96. San Bernardino, CA
97. Fresno, CA
98. Fort Wayne, IN
99. Irving, TX
100. Garland, TX
Read the report in its entirety here.
List and data were compiled by WalletHub and do not reflect statistics on all cities.