It sure is a great time to be living in Falls Church!
In early February, new rankings from 24/7 Wall Street deemed Falls Church City the best “county” to live in within the U.S. Yeah, yeah, we know what the haters must be saying, “But Falls Church isn’t even a county!” While this is technically true, you can politely inform whoever’s raining on your parade that, in this case, Falls Church meets the criteria to qualify as an independent city. [caption id="attachment_7124" align="aligncenter" width="378"]
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These findings were developed by measuring the same elements the United Nations used in determining quality of life to rank nations: educational attainment, poverty rate, and life expectancy. In all of these categories, Falls Church excelled above its competitors.
Now, another survey has recently ruled Falls Church the healthiest community in the nation! U.S. News and World Report collaborated with Aetna Foundation to monitor nearly 3,000 counties and independent cities. The study paid particularly close attention to the societal factors that play prominent roles in determining a community’s overall standard of health. This included equity, life expectancy, unemployment rate, crime, economy, and much more.
The survey analyzed each area on approximately 80 "indicators" across 10 categories found to stimulate a community's overall health. Once again, Falls Church stood out among its adversaries across the board.
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Ironically, the counties in NOVA that placed the highest wound up losing points in part due to respiratory hazards deriving from pollution that emanates from, you guessed it, traffic.
Don’t think you have nothing to celebrate because you’re not a resident of Falls Church. There are plenty of other D.C. beltway towns that ranked in the top 10, including Fairfax City (no. 6) and Loudon County (no.10). In addition, Fairfax County placed 21st and Arlington County settled comfortably at 31st. Both results still deserve kudos, considering results are out of 500 total rankings. Perhaps your victory will taste a little sweeter knowing D.C. didn’t even place!
Even so, if you find yourself feeling disappointed with your community’s results, find out what steps you could be taking to improve next year’s rankings. Those of us celebrating in Falls Church look forward to the friendly competition!
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Courtesy of Long and Foster[/caption]
How are you helping your local community stay healthy? Let us know in the comments!
