By Christy Piña

In Gallup-Sharecare’s State of American Well-Being 2017 Community Well-Being Rankings, Gainesville is ranked 108 out of 186 communities across the country. This is quite the drop from its rank of 45 in 2016.

The annual rankings are divided into five parts: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. The purpose rank is dependent on people in the community liking what they do each day and being motivated to achieve their goals. The social rank relates to supportive relationships and love, while financial is based on the rates of stress/security in personal finances. The community ranking is determined by whether people like where they live and if they feel safe in their community. Finally, the physical rank encompasses having good health and enough energy to get things done daily.

Each individual rank is also categorized by the highest quintile (the best) to the fifth quintile (the lowest).

At 57 of 186, Gainesville rated highest in the social category and lowest in financial, which was ranked 109. Gainesville was also ranked 76 for purpose, 94 for physical and 100 for community Except for the social rank, which fell in the second quintile, Gainesville’s ranks were all within the third quintile.

While Gainesville ranked in the third quintile, Florida as a state ranked 12th, putting it in the second quintile across the country. As a state, we were ranked fourth for purpose and first for social.

So, this year it seems that Gainesville takes the Bronze and Florida takes the Silver. Hopefully next year our well-being rankings will increase and we’ll take Gold!