For decades, the assumption has been that living in a city is a detriment to your health. Skeptics ask why anyone would choose to live in a crowded, noisy urban environment when you could escape all that in the suburbs. The suburbs can be an attractive offer for many but it may not be as good for your overall health as you may have been led to believe.
A study by the University of Oxford and the University of Hong Kong found that rates of obesity were lower in places where population is denser i.e. cities, compared to their lower density counterparts in the suburbs. In addition, the higher density folks had higher levels of socializing with others than those in the suburbs. City folk also tend to walk more often due to the proximity of places in urban areas.
Overall, as the study concludes, living in urban areas isn’t as harmful to one’s well-being as the consensus seems to believe. There are many reasons why humans have chosen to live so close to each other throughout history. Even as technology has made it possible for people to live farther apart, there is still an underlying motivation to be close to people and things.
