America’s Health Rankings 2019: How Maryland Ranks

MARYLAND — The United Health Foundation recently released the 30th edition of its America’s Health Rankings Annual Report, which represents the longest-running state-by-state analysis of the nation’s health.

It’s mixed news for Maryland in 2019, as we finished 18th healthiest overall out of the 50 states.

Here’s more information on how our state ranked across the five model categories that determined the overall ranking.

• Behaviors: 8th
• Community & Environment: 22nd
• Policy: 10th
• Clinical Care: 13th
• Health Outcomes: 18th

The overall ranking for Maryland moved up one position from the 2018 report. Additionally, we have seen steady improvement in ranking overall throughout the past 30 years.

• 2010 Ranking: 21st
• 2000 Ranking: 24th
• 1990 Ranking: 31st

Since 2012, excessive drinking and smoking decreased by double digits across the state. In the past two years, mental health providers increased 17 percent from 219.3 to 257.4 per 100,000 population, the study said.

Challenges the state still faces include:

• High drug death rate
• High violent crime rate
• Large difference in health status by high school education

Related:

• Maryland Hospital Safety Grades Released For Fall 2019
• MD Hospital Safety Grades: 5 Hospitals Get 'D'
• Best Hospitals In Maryland: U.S. News 2019 Rankings

Here are some other healthy highlights from the report.

Vermont ranked as the healthiest city in America for 2019, the researchers found, followed by Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut and Utah.

At the other end of the rankings, Mississippi finished as the lowest-ranked state in the nation. The bottom five was rounded out by Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma.

The report ranked all 50 states across 35 measures of health, such as e-cigarette use, housing problems and concentrated disadvantage. These measures were then filtered through the following five categories to help determine an overall ranking for each state:

• Behaviors
• Community & Environment
• Policy
• Clinical Care
• Health Outcomes

The America’s Health Rankings Annual Report used 19 data sources to determine the most accurate information for each state, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavior Risk Surveillance System and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and Current Population Survey.

“The report provides a unique opportunity to track short- and long-term public health successes as well as identify current and emerging challenges at state and national levels,” authors of the United Health Foundation wrote. “When reading the report, think beyond the rankings; every state, whether first or last, has strengths and challenges.”

The full report is available on Americashealthrankings.org.