How Healthy Is Your County?
March 30. 2011— -- You may have an idea how healthy your town or city is, but what about your county? An annual set of reports is now available ranking the health of almost every U.S. county, and it shows that grocery stores and schools can be more important than doctors in keeping people well.
"Although healthcare is really important, much of what influences health happens outside the doctor's office, including education, income, access to healthy foods, places to exercise and smoke-free air," said Bridget Booske, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in Madison.
Booske is also deputy director of County Health Rankings, a project done in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
One purpose of the reports is to help counties understand what influences people's health as well as to determine how long they will live.
The lowest-ranking counties had certain characteristics in common when compared to the high-ranking counties, such as lower high school graduation rates, more than twice as many children living in poverty, far fewer grocery stores or farmer's markets and higher rates of unemployment.
Click here to see how your healthy your county is.
ABC News looked at the five most populous states and which counties ranked highest (healthiest) and lowest (unhealthiest):
California:
Texas:
New York:
Florida:
Illinois:
