Health & Fitness
Virginia Claims Third Healthiest Community In Nation: U.S. News
Several communities are among the 25 healthiest in the U.S., new rankings say.
FALLS CHURCH, VA—Communities in Virginia are among some of the healthiest in the United States, claiming five 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. 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.
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. Communities were graded on a scale of 0 to 100 on these categories: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food & nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure. (Several metrics fall under each category and in total 81 metrics were used.
Find out what's happening in Falls Churchfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Falls Church, the third healthiest community in the country, had high rankings in a number of categories. The city scores 90 percent of higher for population health, education, economy and public safety. The city scored below 70 on housing, environment equity and food & nutrition.
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.
Find out what's happening in Falls Churchfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The top 500 list features 33 Virginia communities. The communities that made the list are:
- 3. Falls Church City
- 4. Loudoun County
- 13. Fairfax County
- 18. Fairfax City
- 25. Arlington County
- 51. Hanover County
- 62. Powhatan County
- 77. New Kent County
- 95. Poquoson City
- 103. Roanoke County
- 104. Alexandria City
- 118. Albemarle County
- 121. Fauquier County
- 159. Goochland County
- 171. York County
- 187. Botetourt County
- 194. King George County
- 239. Stafford County
- 258. Chesterfield County
- 284. Prince William County
- 300. Greene County
- 331. James City County
- 341. Bedford County
- 342. Clarke County
- 369. Salem City
- 394. King William County
- 416. Gloucester County
- 422. Rappahannock County
- 423. Manassas City
- 430. Frederick County
- 455. Bath County
- 493. Giles County
- 497. Henrico 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 Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
