Rural areas no longer healthier than cities; county rankings provide detailed comparisons

"Americans residing in major cities live longer, healthier lives overall than their country cousins—a reversal from decades past," Melinda Beck reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Many cities that were once notorious for pollution, crime, crowding and infectious diseases have generally cleaned up, calmed down and spread out in recent years, while rural problems have festered. Rural residents are now more likely than other Americans to be obese, sedentary and smoke cigarettes. They also face higher rates of related health problems including diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and high blood pressure."

While cities still have more violent crime, air pollution, sexually transmitted diseases and babies with low birth weight, city residents "tend to rate their own health more highly and are less likely to die prematurely than rural Americans," Beck writes. Generally, suburbs are healthier than cities or rural areas. (Read more)

Those facts were assembled from County Health Rankings, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, designed to spur communities into action to improve their health. The rankings give health factors and health outcomes for every county.