Falls Church Ranked as Third Healthiest Community in the United States

For the second year in a row, U.S. News and World Report has ranked Falls Church as the third healthiest community in the United States, a slight decline from its number 1 ranking in 2018.

The ranking, which looks at everything from population health to public safety and infrastructure, put Falls Church at the top of the charts in the economy (100 points), population health (98 points) and education (96 points) rankings.

In population health: the Falls Church life expectancy of 81.8 years surpassed the national average of 77.9 years while the smoking rate of 12.8% and the percent of population without insurance of 3.7% were both well below the national average.

For the economy: the median household income of $124,796 was more than double the national average of $49,888. The poverty rate of 2.7% was less than the national average of 14.7% and the unemployment rate of 2.2% was lower than the national average of 3.9%.

Falls Church scored lowest in equity (46 points) and housing (35 points). Under equity, the rankings indicated that Falls Church is significantly less diverse than the national average, along with a higher racial disparity in educational attainment and a higher premature death disparity.

While Falls Church scored highly in housing quality, it was ranked low in both housing affordability and housing capacity. The average person would need to work 54 hours to pay for affordable housing in Falls Church, above the national average of 41 hours. The vacancy rate is also substantially lower, at 0.5%, compared to the national average of 2.4%.