RANKED: The UK’s Best Cities for Healthy Living

Do you see gyms on every street? Does all your office small talk revolve around sports? Does your local supermarket dedicate a whole aisle to protein powders, bars and butter?

You could be living in one of the UK’s best cities for healthy living!

We ranked different locations on crucial characteristics of a healthy city like the number of gyms and local interest in physical health, nutrition and supplements. Read on to learn the biggest health and fitness hotspots, including the most physically fit city, the healthiest eaters and the UK’s holistic health hub!

Newcastle is the UK’s top healthy city

Newcastle is the UK’s health and fitness capital, ranking highly for all characteristics of a healthy city.

For residents of Newcastle, it feels like fitness facilities are on every street corner, so there’s almost no excuse for skipping that workout! Newcastle has a total of 247 fitness facilities, including gyms and workout studios, which is more per person than any other UK city (roughly one gym per 1,218 people).

Not only that, but out of the cities we researched, Newcastle has the second-highest interest in physical fitness and third-highest interest in nutrition and supplements. In total, Newcastle residents make 121,380 health and fitness searches on Google per month — equivalent to as many as two-fifths of the city’s population showing an interest in exercise and health.

Here are the top trends among Newcastle’s fitness fanatics:

Trend	Monthly Interest
Gym	2,900
Fitbits	2,900
Exercise Bike	1,300
Vitamin D	1,000
Weighted Hula Hoop	880

The top UK health and fitness hubs ranked

Ranking	City	Population	Number of Gyms	People per Gym	Total Online Interest in Fitness, Exercise, Nutrition and Supplements
1	Newcastle	300820	247	1218	121,380
2	Reading	161780	108	1498	93,620
3	Bristol	465900	230	2026	208,960
4	Leicester	355200	184	1930	128,860
5	Liverpool	500500	250	2002	179,300
6	Nottingham	332900	195	1707	112,150
7	Southampton	260100	187	1391	75,870
8	Belfast	333000	161	2068	114,400
9	Manchester	576500	197	2926	206,600
10	Glasgow	633100	213	2972	221,530
11	Edinburgh	524930	239	2196	157,440
12	Cardiff	364200	175	2081	70,700
13	Leeds	798786	202	3954	183,270
14	Birmingham	1140500	223	5114	326,130
15	Sheffield	584853	223	2623	150,360
16	London	9002488	378	23816	2,037,890

Belfast cares about physical fitness more than any other city

Out of all the cities we researched, Belfast showed the highest predisposition for physical fitness trends, making it one of the UK’s fittest cities. From wearable tech to nearby fitness studios and exercise equipment, the people of Belfast search online for topics relating to physical fitness 63,160 times per month.

Top trends include:

Trend	Monthly Interest
Fitbits	2,900
Gym	1,900
Exercise Bike	1,000
Cross Fitness	880
Resistance Bands	590

Cardiff cares most about supplements and nutrition

When it comes to counting calories and monitoring macros, Cardiff is the winning city on our list. Cardiff residents Google diet and nutrition topics 15,080 times per month, with top searches including:

Trend	Monthly Interest
Calorie Deficit	90
Low Calorie Meals	90
Nutritional Yeast	70
Calorie Counter	70
Low Calorie Snacks	70

Not only that, but Cardiff is top for supplements usage too: there’s more interest in supplements in the Welsh capital than anywhere else in the UK!

Of Cardiff’s 20,520 searches for supplements per month, the biggest trends are:

Trend	Monthly Interest
Vitamin D	320
Creatine	170
B12 Vitamins	170
Probiotics	140
Protein Powder	140

Reading has the most holistic approach to health and fitness

When it comes to balancing physical fitness with a healthy diet and optimised supplement regimen, Reading takes the top spot.

There are 93,620 online searches relating to physical fitness, nutrition and supplements in Reading each month. This amounts to as many as six in ten Reading residents showing an active monthly interest in their overall health and fitness.

The top health and fitness trends in Reading are:

Trend	Monthly Interest
Gym	2,400
Fitbits	1,900
Exercise Bike	720
Vitamin D	720
Cross Fitness	480

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Method & Sources

Rankings are based on key metrics like the number of gyms and online interest in different health topics relative to local populations.

The number of gyms, fitness studios and fitness facilities is calculated using Google Maps search results. City populations were found using city council and Office of National Statistics data. These were used to calculate the number of people per gym.

Online interest in different health and fitness terms for each location was sourced from Google Adwords. Population data found using city council and Office of National Statistics websites was used to calculate interest relative to population size.

Top locations for interest in physical fitness, nutrition and supplements were sourced through Google Trends.