The 10 unhealthiest cities in the U.S. in 2026

The 10 unhealthiest cities in the U.S. in 2026

The cities at the bottom of WalletHub's 2026 Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities ranking share a set of familiar problems: limited access to healthy food, few fitness resources, high rates of premature death and health care systems that rank among the weakest in the country.

The bottom 10 are concentrated in the South and along the Gulf Coast, a geographic pattern that tracks closely with broader disparities in chronic disease prevalence and health outcomes.

WalletHub evaluated 182 of the largest U.S. cities across 41 health indicators in four equally weighted categories: health care, food, fitness and green space.

Each metric was scored on a 100-point scale, and the resulting weighted averages were used to rank the full list. The bottom 10 all scored below 33.33 out of 100, less than half the score earned by the top-ranked city.

For physicians practicing in these communities, the data reinforce what many already see in their examination rooms: the social and environmental determinants of health are often more powerful than clinical interventions alone.

Above are the 10 unhealthiest cities in America in 2026.