New County Health Rankings Released

The 2013 County Health Rankings have been released, which examine the health and well-being of people living in nearly every county in the United States and show that how long and well people live depends on multiple factors beyond just their access to medical care. The Rankings allow counties to see what’s making residents sick or healthy and how they compare to other counties in the same state. The County Health Rankings, now in its fourth year, is a joint project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The Rankings examine 25 factors that influence health, including rates of childhood poverty and smoking, obesity levels, teen birth rates, access to physicians and dentists, rates of high school graduation and college attendance, access to healthy foods, levels of physical inactivity, and percentages of children living in single parent households.  

The following national trends can be observed in this year's data:

• While rates of premature death are at the lowest level in 20 years, the unhealthiest counties still have people dying too early at rates more than twice that of the healthiest counties.
• Child poverty rates have not improved since 2000, with more than one in five children living in poverty.  
• Violent crime has decreased by almost 50 percent over the past two decades.
• The counties where people die too early and don’t feel well either mentally or physically have the highest rates of smoking, teen births, and physical inactivity, and more frequent stays in the hospital that could have been prevented.
• Teen birth rates are more than twice as high in the least healthy counties than in the healthiest counties.