Morris County Named Healthiest In State In New Study

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — Morris County was named New Jersey's healthiest county according to a new study released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Last year, Morris was named the second healthiest county behind only Hunterdon. This is the ninth year the groups have published this study. The researchers looked at a variety of physical and socioeconomic markets of health to determine the rankings.

Only 11 percent of adults said they had "poor or fair" health, the study found. They also had lower rates of adult smoking and obesity when compared to the rest of the state, and the rate of sexually transmitted infections was nearly half what it was statewide.

Patients in Morris County were more likely to be insured than those elsewhere and had a higher concentration of doctors that the rest of the country.

Social and economic factors were taken into account and there too, Morris County did better than the state average. It has higher rates of high school graduation and some college attendance than the rest of the state, and its rate of child poverty was less than half that of the state on average (six percent versus 15 percent).

One factor Morris County did not outrank the rest of the state? Its commuting habits. Commuters tended to have long commutes that they took alone.

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