Bucks Co. Among Nation's Healthiest: U.S. News

Bucks County has made a new list of the healthiest communities in the United States. A total of 500 U.S. communities are featured in the rankings; graded for various health-related factors like population health and environment.

Bucks was ranked No. 174 on the list released 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 ranking for Bucks County was a slight upgrade from 2018, when the county was listed at No. 176.

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.

Bucks was the third-highest ranked county in Pennsylvania on the list, with neighboring Montgomery County coming in at No. 110 and Chester County listed at No. 117. Other Pennsylvania counties making the list were Cumberland (No. 256), Butler (No. 277), Montour (No. 303) and Elk (No. 447).

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 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 Pennsylvania:

Urban, High-Performing: Montgomery County
Rural, High-Performing: No county in Top 100
Urban, Up-and-Coming: Bradford County
Rural, Up-and-Coming: Potter County

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.