Groningen ranked no.1 healthiest place to live in the Netherlands, according to engineering firm Arcadis.
The decision was made based on five key factors: mobility, outdoor spaces, natural environment, built environment, and community. The study, which looked at the links between health and urban living environments, examined 20 municipalities to measure health, based on sources from the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), GGD (Regional Municipal Health Services) and CBS (Statistics Netherlands) that defined the characteristics of a healthy city.
Location matters when it comes to health, Arcadis found. Some places promote wellness by improving their physical and social environments, others strive to expand community resources which enable people to support one another in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential. Groningen is currently the Dutch city with the highest set of characteristics that make a healthy city. The report shows that the city promotes active citizenship, provides easy access to greenery, encourages healthy moving, and creates sound building environments.
Some other factors which make Groningen a healthy city include limits to the use of cars in the center and effort to improve bike lanes and connections, as well as the high number of spaces to get outside and exercise.
Other north Netherlands cities that made the list, but at lower ranks, include Emmen (2) and Leeuwarden (13). The southern port city of Rotterdam finished at the bottom of the list.
Groningen had the same ranking in the previous edition of the index, two years ago.
