The 2018 U.S. News Healthiest Communities Honor Roll recognizes 36 communities ranging from Allegany County, N.Y., to Winneshiek County, Iowa.
The honor roll is a component of U.S. News & World Report's inaugural healthiest communities rankings, a project conducted in collaboration with Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna's charitable foundation. The project scores nearly 3,000 counties on approximately 80 indicators across 10 categories: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure. Researchers then identified the top 500 healthiest communities.
As part of the project, each county was placed into a peer groups based on urban-rural status and economic performance, according to U.S. News & World Report. The groups are urban, high-performing rankings; urban, up-and-coming rankings; rural, high-performing rankings; and rural, up-and-coming rankings.
The honor roll comprises the top-performing communities within each peer group in these specific geographic divisions: East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, Mountain, New England, Pacific, South Atlantic, West North Central and West South Central.
The communities named to the honor roll "best serve their residents in the face of often complex health-related challenges," according to U.S. News & World Report. Populations in honor roll communities range from 2,000 people to nearly 1 million. According to U.S. News & World Report, the honor roll communities together have an average life expectancy of 81 years and health insurance coverage exceeding 90 percent.
Here are the 36 honor roll communities.
- Allegany County, N.Y.
- Bennington County, Vt.
- Leelanau County, Mich.
- Big Stone County, Minn.
- Lexington, Va.
- Carson County, Texas
- Livingston County, N.Y.
- Carver County, Minn.
- Marshall County, Ky.
- Collin County, Texas
- Mono County, Calif.
- Dolores County, Colo.
- Montgomery County, Va.
- Door County, Wis.
- Morris County, N.J.
- Douglas County, Colo.
- Nantucket County, Mass.
- Dukes County, Mass.
- Orleans County, Vt.
- Essex County, N.Y.
- Pickett County, Tenn.
- Falls Church, Va.
- Real County, Texas
- Hamilton County, Ind.
- Routt County, Colo.
- Island County, Wash.
- San Mateo County, Calif.
- Jefferson County, Wash.
- Sibley County, Minn.
- Kerr County, Texas
- Washington County, Tenn.
- Keweenaw County, Mich.
- Williamson County, Tenn.
- King George County, Va.
- Winneshiek County, Iowa
- Latah County, Idaho
Read more about each community here.
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