Rank Check: Bethesda's Scores Slip in Self Survey

OVERACHIEVERS OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, please take a seat. We regret to inform you that in Self magazine’s annual survey of the nation’s healthiest cities for women, Bethesda has slipped from top of the heap to second place. Actually, make that Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, which Self groups together. (D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria also fell a notch, from 15 to 16.)

But Sara Austin, Self’s features director, assures, “To come out second, an area needs to score well across the board. I don’t think it’s anything for Bethesda to lose sleep over.” That’s especially true because one of the newest bits of data Self added this year was sleep quality, and Bethesda scored a very average 51st out of 100.

The suburb can boast, however, about its superb safety stats — 46 percent less violent crime than average and 54 percent fewer rapes — and its status as the reigning champ in the number of OB-GYNs. “That means it’s a good place to have a baby,” Austin adds.

To take back the healthiest title from those ladies in Burlington, Vt., she recommends focusing on eating habits. Apparently, the New Englanders don’t just go to farmers markets like the gals in Bethesda do (see above) — they go to actual farms.

While working on improving their scores for next year, Bethesda’s babes can comfort themselves with another new ranking: Totalbeauty.com has named Bethesda the country’s top city for hot guys.

Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post