County-by-county rankings reveal disparities affecting health
Nationwide county-by-county rankings reveal rates of poverty, violent crime, premature deaths and more.
Released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the 2015 County Health Ranking ranks 30 factors that impact health, including education, transportation, housing, violent crime, jobs, diet and exercise.
According to this year's rankings, almost one out of four children in the U.S. lives in poverty. Child poverty rates are more than twice as high in the unhealthiest counties in each state than in the healthiest counties.
Premature deaths are dropping, with 60 percent of the nation’s counties seeing declines. Premature death rates in Washington, D.C. have dropped by almost one-third based on data from 2004-2006 and 2010-2012, marking the highest drop in the country for counties with populations of 65,000 or more. Forty percent of counties, however, are not making progress in reducing premature deaths.
Unemployment rates are 1.5 times higher in the least healthy counties in each state as they are in the healthiest counties, which have higher college attendance, fewer preventable hospital stays and better access to parks and gyms. The least healthy counties in each state have more smokers, more teen births and more alcohol-related car crashes.
Access the rankings.
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.