AUSTRALIAN CITIES HAVE, at best, a lukewarm relationship with each other. The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is not likely to ever cease. Sydney and Brisbane have some unkind words for each other whenever State of Origin rolls around, and every other capital city is constantly battling for attention. Now we have a new barometer to measure which Australian city is really the best, at least in terms of health and fitness.
Thanks to new research from health insurance provider iSelect, who analysed data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we now know which Australian cities are the healthiest and unhealthiest, based on common metrics. The collated data assesses the amount of citizens in a given city that do not exceed alcohol intake guidelines, meet fruit and vegetable intake guidelines, don’t smoke tobacco, don’t have a long-term health condition and meet exercise guidelines to derive a health score out of 100.
So, which city comes out on top? And which one will we all look down upon for its unhealthy habits? See the full breakdown below.
Sydney leads the way with the healthiest habits and a score of 78.47. The harbour city has the lowest percentage of residents who exceed alcohol guidelines and also scores well in the fruit intake and physical activity categories, while being home to a low percentage of smokers.
Melbourne comes in at second place (to the great joy of Sydneysiders, we’re sure) with similar areas of strength. Next is Canberra, who also score well in most categories, but surprisingly have the lowest percentage of citizens who get enough exercise out of any capital city.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Perth. The Western Australian capital has a health rating of 42.44, but didn’t finish last in any of the health categories. The only problem is, the city doesn’t score well in any of them either, with high alcohol and tobacco consumption coupled with low exercise rates condemning Perth to last place. As for why Perth is the unhealthiest city, we’d suggest it might have something to do with the high level of FIFO workers residing in the city, and the unhealthy lifestyles the profession begets.
On a wider scale, the report also showed that residents of cities tend to be healthier than their rural and regional counterparts. In areas outside of the capital cities, rates of alcohol and tobacco consumption are higher, while exercise rates are lower. According to the report, regional areas do eat more veggies than city dwellers, so there’s that.
Of course, these statistics are not indicative of an individual’s level of health. They’re just averages. So, don’t be too offended if your city scored badly. Just because you live in Sydney, it doesn’t mean you’re healthy. Likewise, living in Perth doesn’t guarantee an unhealthy lifestyle.
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