FROM THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION
2012 County Health Rankings Highlight Healthiest, Least Healthy Counties in Every State
Rankings show what influences how healthy residents are, how long they live.
More than 3,000 counties and the District of Columbia can compare how healthy their residents are and how long they live with the 2012 County Health Rankings. The Rankings are an annual check-up that highlights the healthiest and least healthy counties in every state, based on key factors that influence health such as education rates, income levels, and access to healthy foods and medical care.
Now in their third year, theRankings are increasingly being used by community leaders to help them identify challenges and take action in a variety of ways to improve residents’ health.
Published online at www.countyhealthrankings.org by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, theRankings assess the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states, using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live. TheRankings consider factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment. This year’s Rankings include several new measures, such as how many fast food restaurants are in a county and levels of physical inactivity among residents. Graphs illustrating premature death trends over 10 years are new as well.
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