A Northern Virginia community is being recognized for its tip-top health status.

Falls Church, Virginia, has been named America’s healthiest community by U.S. News and World Report.

The annual ranking lists the top 500 healthiest communities nationwide using a score of zero to 100 across 10 categories, based on assessments of nearly 3,000 counties and county equivalents.

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The categories include population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure.

Falls Church scored high in multiple categories — 97 in population health, 96 in economy, 94 in food and nutrition, 95 in infrastructure, and a perfect score of 100 in education.

“The Little City” dethroned Los Alamos County, New Mexico, which took second place in 2024, followed by Douglas County, Colorado; Sioux County, Iowa; and Hamilton County, Indiana.

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Falls Church also landed the top spot in 2018.

The city was found to have the top walkability score and ranked high for its proximity to destinations like libraries, museums or playgrounds, according to U.S. News.

A playground at Graham Park in Falls Church, Virginia, is pictured. The city was found to have the top walkability score and ranked high for its proximity to destinations like libraries, museums or playgrounds. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Falls Church has a 93% preschool enrollment rate and a 97% high school graduation rate.

Eight in 10 residents have at least an associate’s degree, earning the city a high score in education.

Behind the ranking

There are 92 metrics that make up each of the 10 assessed categories, U.S. News data editor Julia Haines shared with Fox News Digital.

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For example, the population health category considers metrics like cancer prevalence, lack of health insurance, and life expectancy, which is the heaviest weighted of all categories, according to Haines.

This is followed by equity, education and the economy. 

Falls Church ranked high in a number of these categories, Haines said.

A class is pictured at Justice High School in Falls Church, Virginia, on September 11, 2019.  (ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)

“We like to say that consistency is key across our rankings, so doing well in a number of categories and subcategories helps a county succeed,” she told Fox News Digital.

As U.S. News marks its sixth edition of Healthiest Communities, Haines said she hopes the annual list starts conversations among communities and individuals.

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“[The list] allows our readers to not only identify how their communities succeed, but also where they may fall short, perhaps motivating readers and community leaders to find solutions,” she said.

“For example, someone may find that while their county is doing really well, a county just a few miles away could be struggling, indicating that something may be causing that shift down the road.”

The population health category considers metrics like cancer prevalence, population with no health insurance, and life expectancy, which is the heaviest weighted of all categories. (iStock)

Dana Jones, the director of Housing and Human Services in Falls Church, said the local reaction to the designation has been “one of joy that the city has been recognized for something we make a real effort toward.”

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“Residents and employees see the correlation between health, wellness and quality of life,” she told Fox News Digital.

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Jones echoed some attributes that she believes gave Falls Church an advantage, including the city’s nationally recognized farmers market, “outstanding education system” and walkability.

The Eden Center, located at Seven Corners in Falls Church, Virginia, is a destination for Vietnamese food and specialties. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Mayor Letty Hardi displays “fitness in action” by walking and jogging around town and hosting the annual Mayors’ Fitness Challenge, Jones noted.

Some of the other contributing factors to the city’s ranking include “trail improvements, a focus on bike safety and the availability of healthy food,” according to Jones.

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Above all, she added, community members want “the best for themselves and their families, including comprehensive health and a safe and affordable place to live.”

Protesters blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in mid-April to call attention to the war in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinian civilians whose cities were being bombarded.

Now, authorities in San Francisco are prosecuting them for trapping people in their cars on the bridge for hours. The San Francisco Public Defender countered that officials were “weaponizing the law” against protesters; he wants the charges dropped.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office announced in a news release Monday that arrest warrants were issued for the 26 people who participated in the April 15 protest. All 26 surrendered to law enforcement, according to the California Highway Patrol, but they have not appeared in court or been assigned legal representation.

“While we must protect avenues for free speech, the exercise of free speech can not compromise public safety,” Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “The demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge caused a level of safety risk, including extreme threats to the health and welfare of those trapped, that we as a society cannot ignore or allow.”

The group, dubbed the “Golden Gate 26” by their supporters, could be represented by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which blasted the charges and cited a higher moral authority for the protest.

“The protestors are opposing American tax dollars being used to fund ongoing attacks on the people in Gaza, which the International Criminal Court has deemed crimes against humanity,” San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement. “Our attorneys intend to vehemently defend any individuals we are appointed to represent.”

The district attorney’s office charged the 26 with trespassing to interfere with a business, obstruction of a thoroughfare, unlawful assembly, refusal to disperse at a riot, failure to obey the orders of police and 38 counts of false imprisonment. Eight of the defendants also face a felony conspiracy charge, and the rest face a misdemeanor conspiracy charge.

Protests in opposition to the war in Gaza have taken over highways, college campuses and city streets since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, where militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostages, roughly 115 of whom are still missing. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in Gaza, who include both Hamas forces and civilians in their casualty counts.

The protesters gathered shortly before 8 a.m. on April 15 on the Golden Gate Bridge, where they abandoned their vehicles and chained their bodies together while holding up signs. The group’s members were warned repeatedly by police and other officials that they would be arrested if they did not move, but the group ignored them, according to the D.A.’s office.

A protester later identified as Sara Cantor told police that the protesters would not resist arrest, but the demonstrators who were interlocked between vehicles with a large metal tube would not voluntarily comply with authorities, the D.A.’s office said. All of the protesters were arrested and removed from the bridge, and the traffic lanes were reopened by 12:20 p.m.

Roughly 12,000 vehicles travel south and 8,000 vehicles travel north on the bridge between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon, according to the Golden Gate Bridge District, which the D.A.’s office claims lost more than $162,000 in revenue due to the protest.

Jenkins took to social media following the protest to ask for anyone stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge to come forward, because they could be entitled to restitution and have other rights guaranteed under state’s law.

The D.A.’s office said several hundred people were held against their will at the mercy of the protest. According to court documents, people caught in the middle of stopped traffic missed work and important medical appointments, and a mother with her baby did not have water for the infant formula.