America's least healthy counties are mostly rural

Last month we reported a new study from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation detailing the health levels of every county in the U. S. The rankings suggested that rural counties tended to be less healthy, and now the Daily Yonder has broken down the data to support that notion. "Healthier counties are urban/suburban, whereas least health counties are mostly rural," the researchers found. "About half (48 percent) of the 50 healthiest counties are urban or suburban counties, whereas most (84 percent) of the 50 least healthy counties are rural."

The Yonder explains the data isn't very useful for comparisons across state borders because different states used different measures to compute the health levels, but it does note the five most healthy and least healthy counties in each state in a map, below, and provides charts comparing the percentage of urban and rural counties on the two lists in each state and a list of the healthiest and least healthy counties in every state broken down by rural, urban or suburban designation. (Read more)