More money, more fitness: Why people in the wealthiest states get more exercise

But the report finds that some states are doing a lot better job of staying active than others. 13.5 percent in Mississippi to a high of 32.5 percent in Colorado.

What's driving those differences? In other words, why do people in Colorado exercise so much more people in Mississippi? To find out, we can draw from a variety of sources in a semi-scientific effort to identify the factors – demographic, cultural, economic and otherwise. Weekly workouts.

Among the nine indicators we analyzed, the biggest predictor of weekly physical activity was: Residents of states with bigger median incomes were more likely to get out and exercise than people in low-income states.

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We uncovered some surprises in the data, too. Heavy drinking is somewhat correlated with more physical activity, believe it or not. Warmer temperatures are linked to the exercise. And other characteristics of the physical environment, such as daily sunshine and mild winters,

Here are a few definitions before we dig in. According to federal guidelines, adults should perform at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, each week. They should also have some muscle-strengthening activity, such as calisthenics or lifting weights, at least twice a week.

The CDC report jogs, bike rides, trips to the gym and other activities that are not part of their jobs. Some adults may also meet those guidelines through work, especially if they have demanding physical jobs. But the CDC is not interested in this activity because of the fact that it is more likely that it is not physical activity.

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The federal guidelines set a high bar for physical activity – fewer than one in four working adults are actually getting that much exercise. We have drawn from a number of sources, including the U.S. Census, the CDC and the Kaiser Family Foundation, to see what factors have been correlated with meeting the requirements of the

We've plotted these relationships below. In each of the nine charts, each circle represents a state. The axis is the same in every chart – it shows the percentage of adults meeting the guidelines. The x axes represent the other variables we looked at.

Finally, it is important to note that it is closely related to the variables, with larger numbers indicating a stronger relationship. The best job of the job, the best job in the job market.

We found that, overall, median household income does the best job of predicting physical fitness. The more money you have, the more exercise you get. You need disposable income to buy a gym membership or

We also turn up an interesting correlation between religiosity, or rather the lack thereof, and physical fitness: States with higher percentages of people in managerial and professional roles. with higher numbers of non-religious people had higher rates of exercise. As the Public Religion Research Institute has reported, cities tend to be "hubs" for the religiously unaffiliated, and they are often full of the types of high-paying jobs that the CDC links to higher rates of exercise. There may also be a simple mechanism in which to do so

Conversely, fitness is negatively associated with the share of people in a state who voted for President Trump in 2016. This is where we need to point out, emphatically, that simple correlations like these do not tell us much about causation. It seems highly unlikely that the pulling of the lift for Trump would somehow make a person decide to hang up her running shoes. More likely, Trump support is related to a whole host of other structural factors, like income and demographics, that also relates to rates of fitness.

It remains interesting, however, that Trump support is about a good predictor of physical fitness in the state of health.

Here's something of a puzzle: Rates of heavy drinking, or 15 or more for men, by the CDC) are correlated with greater levels of leisure time physical activity. This may seem counterintuitive, but again, it is more likely that it is likely to be more likely to occur.

The physical environment, on the other hand, seems to play less of a role in exercise than one might think. Warmer daily temperatures show a slight negative correlation with rates of exercise – the hotter it is, the less people work out. But the overall physical environment, as measured by the USDA's Natural Amenities scale, does not seem to play much of a role at all. This is the beginning of the day when we consider that many people get their exercise in indoor, climate-controlled gyms.

Let's wrap it all up with one final question: Should you ever care about any of this? Here's the answer: only if you enjoy being alive.