17 California Communities Among America's Healthiest: U.S. News

Watch out California, when it comes to the healthiest communities in the United States, Colorado took seven of the top spots in a newly released set of rankings. A total of 500 U.S. communities are featured in the rankings; graded for various health-related factors like population health and environment.

Released on Tuesday, the 2019 healthiest communities rankings are a joint collaboration between U.S. News & World Report and the Aetna Foundation. To come up with the finalized list, U.S. News and the Aetna Foundation evaluated nearly 3,000 communities across multiple health-related metrics in 10 categories.

The top spot on the 2019 list goes to Douglas County, Colorado. Los Alamos County in New Mexico took the No. 2 spot while Falls Church in Virginia ranked No. 3, dropping from the No.1 spot in 2018. Loudoun County in Virginia and Broomfield, County in Colorado came in at No. 4 and No. 5 respectively. Overall, seven Colorado communities ranked among the top 20. Iowa was another state that fared well in the rankings, taking 62 of the top 500 spots.

Of 58 counties in California, 17 made the top 500 healthiest communities list. The counties that made the list are:

• Marin County, ranked 24th
• Placer County, ranked 37th
• San Mateo County, ranked 39th
• Santa Clara County, ranked 45th
• Mono County, ranked 125th
• San Luis Obispo County, ranked 251st
• Sonoma County, ranked 262nd
• Napa County, ranked 268th
• Alameda County, ranked 302nd
• El Dorado County, ranked 333rd
• Ventura County, ranked 344th
• Contra Costa County, ranked 353rd
• Inyo County, ranked 373rd
• San Benito County, ranked 390th
• Orange County, ranked 404th
• San Francisco County, ranked 444th
• Nevada County, ranked 475th

In addition, Tuolumne County near Yosemite National Park ranks among the top 100 in its urban, up-and-coming peer group, according to the report.

California is strongest, on average, in the population health and food and nutrition categories, the report found. Its top-performing communities score particularly well in measures of health behavior, with low smoking rates and low levels of physical inactivity, the rankings showed.

Below are the 10 categories the communities were graded on (Several metrics fall under each category and in total 81 metrics were used):

Population Health
Equity
Education
Economy
Housing
Food & Nutrition
Environment
Public Safety
Community Vitality
Infrastructure

Along with the overall healthiest communities rankings, U.S. News also created rankings based on the urban or rural status of individual communities. Those were grouped into four categories: urban high-performing, urban up-and-coming, rural high-performing and rural up-and-coming.

Below are the top-ranked U.S. communities in each category:

Urban, High-Performing:
Douglas County, Colorado
Los Alamos County, New Mexico
Falls Church City, Virginia
Loudoun County, Virginia
Broomfield County, Colorado

Rural, High-Performing:
Teton County, Wyoming
Chaffee County, Colorado
Morgan County, Utah
Routt County, Colorado
Jefferson County, Montana

Urban, Up-and-Coming
Houston County, Minnesota
Hood River County, Oregon
Bennington County, Vermont
Island County, Washington
Marquette County, Michigan

Rural, Up-and-Coming
Wallowa County, Oregon
Lincoln County, Washington
Calhoun County, Iowa
Iron County, Wisconsin
Baylor County, Texas

Below are the top-ranked communities in each category for California:

Urban, High-Performing:
Marin County, ranked 17th
Placer County, ranked 29th
San Mateo County, ranked 30th
Santa Clara County, ranked 33rd

Rural, High-Performing:
Mono County, ranked 37th

Urban, Up-and-Coming:
Tuolumne County, ranked 68th

U.S. News worked with the University of Missouri Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES) to compile the rankings. The publication also consulted with members of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. Data came from sources like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.