hankyoreh

Amsterdam residents frolic on a frozen canal as some skate and others take snapshots on Jan. 3. (Reuters/Yonhap)

A new report finds that Amsterdam is the global city that supports the healthiest lifestyle.

Lenstore, an online contact lens retailer that also researches eye diseases, named the capital of the Netherlands first among 44 metropolises in its recently published Healthy Lifestyle Cities Report 2021. Seoul trailed far behind at 18th.

The report graded cities based on ten factors closely linked to healthy lifestyles, including happiness, pollution, obesity, working hours and sunshine.

The report compared cost of living in the 44 cities by tracking the price of a bottle of water. Access to exercise was compared according to the number of outdoor activities and the cost of a gym membership.

Amsterdam claimed the top spot in the rankings thanks to its fairly high level of happiness, relaxed working schedule and generous amenities. Major cities in Northern Europe occupied many of the top spots in the report, with Stockholm in fourth, Copenhagen in fifth and Helsinki in sixth.

Those cities reported the highest levels of happiness (7.35-7.80). Residents there also worked the fewest hours (1380-1540 per year) and had lower pollution levels (13.08-30.90) to deal with.

Outside of Europe, the Australian city of Sydney placed second because of its constant sunshine and ample range of outdoor activities.

Vienna owed its third place finish to low levels of pollution, while Berlin ranked eighth thanks to an easy working week.

The top-ranked city in Asia turned out to be a surprise: Fukuoka came in seventh, leaving Tokyo in the dust at 29th. The city’s high score was backed by an extremely low obesity level, a high life expectancy and the affordable price of a bottle of water.

While Seoul and Fukuoka have similar levels of obesity, life expectancy and happiness, the South Korean capital scored much lower in the ranking because of its long working hours. Seoul even lost out to Beijing, which came in 12th.

Metropolises in South Korea, Japan and China enjoy a similar life expectancy to those in Northern Europe, but their happiness levels are much lower and their pollution is much worse.

Europe’s most famous cities — Paris (35th) and London (38th) — came in toward the back of the pack.

In the US, Washington (41st) and New York (42nd) were at the very bottom, next to the Russian capital of Moscow (43rd) and Mexico City (44th). Obesity rates were higher in American metropolises than in cities in other countries.

By Park Jung-eon, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]