Tom Kalinski, RE/MAX of Boulder
BOULDER – Residents of Boulder, Colorado know one thing for certain: living well comes naturally in this environment. And the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index confirms it. With a well-being index score of 64.7, Boulder ranks No. 10 of 189 metropolitan statistical areas evaluated nationwide.
Tracked on a two-year rolling average, Boulder’s well-being rank has been one of the top communities in the Gallup-Healthways analysis since 2008. All of the top-five communities have placed on previous years’ top 10 lists of highest well-being locales.
What constitutes well-being? There are five essential elements, according to Gallup-Healthways:
Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
Community: liking where you live, feeling safe, and having pride in your community
Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index scores each community on metrics within the five elements and calculates findings on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest and 100.
Holistic wellness coach Ales Gil of Boulder Vitale Studio Alex Gil supports the idea that well-being is made up of many factors. “Because we are very integrated systems – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual – one area is constantly affecting the other areas. It is hard to achieve high levels of health by only addressing the physical or mental. We need to address all areas for optimum health,” says Gil in an interview published on the Boulder Source community news site.
Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida ranks No. 1 for well-being and Barnstable Town, MA and Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA round out the top three.
Here are the top ten metro areas: Naples-Immokalee-Markco Island, FL; Barnstable Town, MA; Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA; Urban Honolulu, HI; Charlottesville, VA; North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL; San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grand, CA; Lynchburg, VA; Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort, SC; Boulder, CO.
Gallup tracks Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) well-being on the basis of two-year rolling averages, allowing for larger sample sizes that improve the statistical accuracy of the data. About half of all 2015-2016 data in this reporting period overlap with the 2014-2015 index data.
Data are drawn from more than 354,000 interviews with U.S. adults across all 50 states. The sample projects to an estimated 95 percent of all U.S. adults.
For the full Gallup-Healthways Index, visit gallup.com/poll/204536/naples-florida-remains-top-metro.aspx
For the full story on Alex Gil and Vitale Studio, visit bouldersource.com/featured-friends/alex-gil-vitale-studio-boulder-holistic-coach.
By Tom Kalinski, RE/MAX of Boulder. Tom Kalinski is the owner and founder at RE/MAX of Boulder. Call 303.441.5620, e-mail [email protected] or visit boulderco.com.
