When it comes to health and fitness, studies show that where you live has a big impact. After touring Australia during a long holiday, a member of Mandoe Media´s data team got to wondering which of Australia´s cities were the healthiest. A question that set them on a quest to find out.

After extensive research, the results were a bit of a surprise. You do not necessarily have to live in the biggest city to get the best access to gyms and recreational spaces.

Adelaide and the Gold Coast topped the list

According to Mandoe Media's study, Adelaide and the Gold Coast are the two healthiest cities in Australia. They performed well across all metrics. Residents of both cities had great access to gyms, healthy restaurants, and a huge choice of outdoor activities. In terms of the overall score, they were dead level.

The Gold Coast stood out as having particularly good access to healthy restaurants. It ranked 4th despite having a much smaller population than many of the other cities on the list.

Residents of Gold Coast ranked number one for the gym interest metric, but Adelaide beat them when it came to Gym availability. Suggesting that there is room for more gym chains to open up in the Gold Coast area.

Melbourne and Perth: Tied for Third Place

In Mandoe Media´s study, Melbourne and Perth came joint third. For Melbourne, it was the population´s interest in healthy eating that helped it to rank so highly. The city came first for healthy restaurant quality and second for availability.

Whereas, Perth´s high rank was mostly down to the fact that so many residents were interested in attending the gym. For that metric, the city ranked fourth and there were plenty of good ones to choose from. Perth was second on the list of cities with good-quality gyms.

Australia´s biggest city Sydney ranked fifth overall

Surprisingly, the most populous city in the country only came fifth out of the sixteen cities Mandoe Media analysed. The lack of interest in gym membership and the fact that relatively speaking there was less access to outdoor activities combined to pull Sydney´s overall ranking down.

Sydney offers the biggest choice of healthy restaurants

As you would expect when it came to the availability of healthy restaurants Sydney ranked highly. In fact, they were number one for availability and second for quality. Melbourne grabbed the number one spot for the quality measure. 

Brisbane offers the best gyms

Brisbane ranked a respectable sixth overall, mostly because of its outstanding gyms. Residents of the city have access to 451 gyms, which are located within easy travelling distance of most people.

Chris Shaw, the director of Brisbane gym Club Bunker said:

"It's fantastic to see Brisbane getting recognition for taking health and fitness seriously and it doesn't surprise us that we've beaten out some of our southern friends. Better luck next year, Melbourne,"

Ironically,, Melbourne´s residents are crazy about the gym. Every month, they carry out 250,000 gym-related searches. That works out to one search, per month, for every five residents.

Cairns takes the top spot for outdoor activities

When it comes to outdoor activities you really can´t beat Cairns. The list of what is available is impressive, including white water rafting, rainforest walks, snorkelling, diving, bungee jumping, and more.

Peta Zietsch the Director of Sales at Cairns Adventure Group said.

"We've got the Great Barrier Reef on our doorstep, spectacular rainforest, and hiking trails in every direction."

How Mandoe Media did it

The above findings demonstrate that health and wellness have become very important to Australians. To uncover the above trends, Mandoe Media crunched data from Google, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and several other sources. Taking this global approach enabled them to compare the health and wellness interests of the residents of sixteen of Australia´s biggest cities.

There is little doubt that demand for gyms, outdoor activities, and healthy restaurants is high and growing. This is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that so many Australians and visitors to the country are searching for these things online.