Contact:
Randy Beehler
Communications & Public Affairs Director
901-1142
Yakima ranks 10th among small cities in the 2013 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a national survey that provides insight about a community’s overall health. The index is a collaborative effort of Gallup, an international polling firm, and Healthways, a worldwide healthcare services and consulting provider.
The index ranks cities, congressional districts, and states based on feedback from surveys that are divided into six sub-indexes concerning life evaluation (current life situation and anticipated future life situation), emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment, and access to necessities crucial to well-being (such as clean water, affordable fruits and vegetables, enough money for food and shelter, availability of healthcare, etc.).
Public and private sector leaders use data from the annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index to help their communities continue to thrive and grow.
“Yakima’s top-ten ranking speaks well of our community,” said Yakima City Manager Tony O’Rourke. “It’s definitely something we should be proud of. It says that people in Yakima value
health and well-being and that this community is a good place to live and work. Like every city, Yakima certainly has issues that need to be addressed,” said O’Rourke. “But it’s also important to recognize the many outstanding qualities of this community and this survey underscores that.”
Other cities in WashingtonState also ranked well in the 2013 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Bellingham was rated 4th among small communities, the Bremerton-Silverdale area ranked 9th in the mid-size communities category, and in the large communities category, the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area was 8th. Washington State was 15th on the state composite rankings list.
The index is based on a compilation of daily surveys that are conducted over a 12-month period to gauge the well-being of people living throughout the United States. More than 350,000 people over the age of 18 were surveyed from January 2012 through December 2012 to gather data for the latest index results. Since Gallup and Healthways first developed the index in 2008, more than 1.7 million people have been surveyed as part of the data gathering process.
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