8 Washington Communities Among Country’s Healthiest: U.S. News

ORCAS ISLAND, WA - Several counties in Washington have been ranked among the healthiest in the United States 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. To come up with the finalized list, U.S. News and Aetna evaluated nearly 3,000 communities across multiple health-related metrics in 10 categories.

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. Overall, seven Colorado communities ranked among the top 20. Iowa was another state that fared well in the rankings, taking 62 of the top 500 spots.

Eight Washington counties made the top 500 healthiest communities list. Here's where they fell in the over ranking of 500 counties:

• 52 - San Juan County (No. 79 in 2018)
• 288 - King County (No. 307 in 2018)
• 363 - Lincoln County (No. 344 in 2018)
• 371 - Snohomish County (No. 422 in 2018)
• 375 - Island County, Washington (No. 266 in 2018)
• 402 - Jefferson County (No. 190 in 2018)
• 403 - Thurston County (No. 300 in 2018)
• 409 - Clark County (Not ranked in 2018)

San Juan County was ranked healthiest in Washington because of its high life-expectancy (almost 84 years), low smoking rate (11.7 percent), and a low share of people without health insurance (8.8 percent).

Although it was ranked lowest among Washington counties that made the list, Clark County was ground zero for one of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. in recent years.