The City of Falls Church is back at the top of the U.S. News & World Report rankings as the healthiest community nationwide.

Falls Church hasn’t taken the No. 1 spot since the start of U.S. News’ Healthiest Communities rankings in 2018. In 2022, the last time the ranking came out, it was No. 2.

This year’s honor comes two weeks after neighboring Arlington was ranked “America’s Fittest City” for the seventh year in a row by the American Fitness Index.

For its rankings, U.S. News assessed nearly 3,000 communities across more than 90 metrics in 10 categories to come up with its top 500.

The 10 categories are population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality, and infrastructure. Each category was scored on a scale of 100.

Falls Church ranked well in half of the 10 categories: education (No. 1), population health (No. 4), economy (No. 6), food and nutrition (No. 14), and infrastructure (No. 16). The city scored the worst on housing (56/100), the environment (58/100), and equity (62/100).

A total of 29 Virginia jurisdictions made the Healthiest Communities list, with three others in the top 20. They are Fairfax County (No. 14), Fairfax City (No. 15), and Arlington County (No. 19).

In population health, while Falls Church was fourth,  Fairfax County came in first; Arlington County, third; and Loudoun County, eighth.

Overall, Loudoun County came at No. 26 but was No. 1 for the economy and No. 4 for food and nutrition.

Alexandria had an overall ranking of 105 on the list of 500 but ranked No. 2 for public safety, while Arlington placed fifth and Manassas Park City, seventh.

NoVA Places on Healthiest Communities List

Other NoVA jurisdictions on the list:

• Manassas — No. 254
• Fauquier County — No. 291
• Prince William County — No. 309
• Manassas Park City — No. 311
• Stafford County — No. 386

In 2022, Loudoun County ranked No. 12; Fairfax County, No. 17; Arlington, No. 19; and City of Fairfax, No. 29.

Of course, every NoVA community has something to offer. Here are the ones that made our Great Places to Live list.

Feature image courtesy City of Falls Church

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