People decide to move for many different reasons. From an affordable cost of living and job opportunities to safer neighborhoods and being closer to loved ones, relocating can lead to a multitude of advantages that improve a person’s quality of life. However, more recently, there’s been an increase in people moving for health. They desire to live in an environment that does more than encourage residents to be healthy, but provides various resources to make prioritizing their well-being easier.
If you are relocating for health, knowing what to look for in a city or neighborhood is essential to finding the best place to call home. Below are a few factors to consider as you begin your search.
Table of Contents
Environmental Factors
You can make all the necessary changes in the world to adopt a healthier lifestyle; however, the effectiveness of your choices are significantly impacted by the environment. Many factors including chemical usage, toxicity levels, air pollution, climate change, natural disasters, diseases, infrastructure, water, and soil quality can be harmful to your health.
When relocating for health, assessing how a city manages environmental factors that impacts its residents is essential. Here are some questions to consider:
- Does their public health department focus on toxicology, chemical risk assessment, air quality, microbe-related diseases, climate change, and natural diasters?
- Do public health officials implement and enforce sustainable practices for residents and businesses to keep communities safe?
- What is the condition of the infrastructure? Are the roads and buildings well maintained?
- Does the community provide clean drinking water?
Resident Health
You can tell a lot about a community by analyzing the health of its residents. Although adopting a healthy lifestyle is an independent decisions, if there is an alarming number of citizens with poor health, it should cause concern. Not to mention, you want to live somewhere where you’re surrounded by people who will support your efforts to live right. While you can’t get personalized details about a person’s health, you can use resources like online surveys, blog posts, and medical sites that report data like population health and other related data.
Access To Healthy Food
Eating nutritious, organic, and whole foods is essential to your health and wellness. Unfortunately, not all communities have access to healthy foods to sustain a proper diet. Some cities don’t have organic and sustainable farms to provide fresh produce to the community. Some offer healthy foods, but the cost is often more than the average resident can afford. Others have few options within a reasonable distance, making it difficult for residents to get the foods they need to thrive.
The idea is to find a destination where organic farming is prevalent, healthy foods are affordable, and service providers are in close proximity.
Amenities
As adopting a healthy lifestyle isn’t easy, it helps to have tools and resources at your disposal to help you through the process. When relocating for health, you must evaluate the health-related amenities available to the community. For example, if you were interested in moving to Sacramento, CA, you want to find out what perks the city has to offer.
Are there any gyms in Sacramento? If so, are there affordable options with convenient services? You can also check other health-related amenities like sporting good stores, health and wellness vendors, quality grocery stores, parks, recreational areas, and health programs. The more resources you find the more assistance you have to live better.
Financial Factors
You may be surprised to find finances on the list of factors to evaluate; however, it can impact your health. Money isn’t everything, but it’s essential to sustain a decent living and afford everyday necessities. When your finances are tight, it reduces your quality of life and increases stress. Therefore, you should evaluate the economic health of a community.
What is the average cost of living? What is the median household income? Do the residents make enough money to afford a decent life or will they struggle? You should also evaluate the available programs for working class and low-income families. Are there resources to help them acquire what they need or is it difficult to get assistance?
When most people think about moving, the focus is primarily on finding the perfect home. While you should certainly find a place you love, you mustn’t overlook the importance of your health. As you can see from above, where you live can have a significant impact on your decision to live a better life. So, as you begin researching the best places to live, add the health-related factors listed above to your checklist to ensure you find a community that puts your well-being first.