Today, CityHealth released its annual policy assessment and the word of the year is progress. This report shows exciting advances that are impacting the lives of over 22 million people across the country. Cities are demonstrating to the nation that there are real, pragmatic ways to give all people living, working, and playing in their communities the opportunity to live their healthiest life possible.
For the past three years, CityHealth has rated the 40 largest U.S. cities on a package of nine evidence-based policies, which include restaurant grading, safe streets, and high-quality, accessible pre-kindergarten. Localities are assessed not only on if they have the policy in place, but also the quality of those policies. This year, we’ve seen cities making substantial progress putting these policies in place and strengthening them.
Top Findings
- Since 2018, ten cities have improved their overall medal status—Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Las Vegas, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle and Tucson.
- For the first time, 75% of cities earned an overall medal, compared to less than half in 2017.
- In all, there were 35 individual policy medal advances across the country, predominantly in tobacco policy, safer streets, and high quality, accessible Pre-Kindergarten.
These achievements are tremendous and we thank city officials and their community partners for their leadership. What is happening in our cities can spur others at the local, state, and national level to advance proven policies that can improve all our health and well-being. Let’s find ways to keep supporting and challenging each other to continue this important growth. We know that every unearned medal is an opportunity to create more prosperous cities, and we want nothing more than to partner with you to make that happen.
