See NJ's Healthiest And Least Healthiest Counties For 2022: Report

NEW JERSEY — While living through a pandemic, New Jersey's 21 counties were recently ranked from healthiest to least healthy in the 2022's County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.

Published annually for the last decade, County Health Rankings is a program led by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute seeking to understand what influences how long and how well we live.

The rankings look at length and quality of life while taking into account different measures that affect a community's health, including smoking, diet and exercise, alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity. Rates for education, income, and community safety are also incorporated.

This year the rankings include deaths attributable to COVID-19 from 2020.

Overall, Morris County once again ranked number 1 among all counties in the Garden State while Cumberland County ranked as the least healthy.

Take a look at how each NJ county ranked:

1. Morris
2. Hunterdon
3. Somerset
4. Bergen
5. Sussex
6. Middlesex
7. Monmouth
8. Union
9. Ocean
10. Hudson
11. Warren
12. Burlington
13. Mercer
14. Gloucester
15. Cape May
16. Passaic
17. Essex
18. Atlantic
19. Camden
20. Salem
21. Cumberland

The rankings also look to help communities better address disparities in health care access.

"Communities thrive when all people can be healthy in their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. CHR&R brings actionable data and strategies to communities working to ensure that healthy places are available to all," the organization wrote on its website.

Here's a look at the measures used to calculate our county's overall ranking:

Health Outcomes

• Premature death
• Adults reporting fair or poor health
• Physically unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days
• Mentally unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days
• Live births with low birth weight

Health Factors - Health Behaviors

• Adult smokers
• Adult obesity
• Healthy Food Environment Index
• Physical inactivity
• Residents with access to exercise opportunities
• Excessive drinking
• Driving deaths attributed to alcohol impairment
• Sexually transmitted infections
• Teen births

Health Factors - Clinical

• Uninsured residents
• Primary care physicians
• Dentists
• Mental health providers
• Preventable hospital stays
• Mammography screenings
• Flu vaccinations

Health Factors - Social And Economic

• High school completion
• College education
• Unemployment
• Children in poverty
• Income inequality
• Children in single-parent households
• Social associations
• Violent crime
• Injury deaths

County Health Rankings used data from a variety of sources to compile this year's rankings. To see New Jersey's full report on the website.

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