It’s pretty much a rerun of last year: The annual County Health Rankings report shows St. John’s took the top spot for healthiest and Union County - home to Florida State Prison - came in last.
After St. John’s, the report lists the next-healthy as Collier, Seminole, Martin, and Miami-Dade. Least-healthy, after Union County, were Washington, Putnam, Baker and Hamilton.
As Health News Florida reported last year, the same counties tend to rank high or low every year. This indicates that some of the measurement factors are difficult to change.
How are the rankings drawn up? They are based on 29 factors, including rates of smoking, high school graduation, poverty, physical activity, and access to healthy foods. Healthy counties had half as many children living in poverty and half as many teen births as unhealthy counties.
The study, conducted jointly by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, covered all 50 states. It was released Wednesday.