This is London’s fittest borough, according to Fitness First survey - where is your borough on the list?

A survey conducted by Fitness First regarding the fittest borough in London has concluded that residents of Islington are the fittest across the region. The extensive survey looked at a number of factors that delves also into what makes the boroughs fit and how location could have an impact on the fitness of London locals.

To create the list of the healthiest boroughs, researchers gathered data on the number of shops and restaurants listed as healthy on sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor and then divided these numbers with the total number of shops and restaurants by borough to get a percentage. The research also incorporated Fitness First’s own gym membership data to get an idea of how active residents in each borough might be.

Fitness First took the total populations of each borough according to the most recent government census and compared it with the number of Fitness First gym memberships in each borough to get a metric for gym members per 1,000 people. Finally, the study combined the Yelp and Tripadvisor data with Fitness First’s member data and multiplied the health score percentage by the number of gym members per 1,000 people to get an overall health score between 0 and 3.

The results showed that Islington is the overall healthiest borough in London (17.25%), worked out by the number of health food shops and restaurants in each borough divided by the total number of health food shops and healthy restaurants in the whole of London. It has the most health-food shops (7), restaurants (57) and gym memberships (11) combined, with Havering coming in at a close second.

Lambeth has the highest gym membership score (39) as well as the third-highest shop score (11), landing third in the overall standings.

Fewer options could lead to long term health issues

Speaking about the results of the survey, Tim Andrews from Fitness First said: “London is often seen as a single entity, but this data shows that isn’t quite the case. Residents in some boroughs have substantially fewer options when it comes to finding nutritious meals and somewhere to exercise — and that could be hurting their health in the long term.”

“We care about everyone in London enjoying the same opportunities to keep fit and happy. With this data, we can see there’s still plenty of work to be done to make that a reality for all Londoners.”

The five fittest boroughs in London, according to Fitness First

1. Islington
2. Havering
3. Lambeth
4. Camden
5. Hammersmith and Fulham