Urban, Up-and-Coming Rankings
Measuring health and wellness in similar communities
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Understanding the cultures of communities around the U.S. and how they can overcome obstacles to health and wellness is a key driver behind the U.S. News Healthiest Communities rankings, which allow residents to compare their communities with others across the nation of similar geographic status and economic strength.
Urban communities with up-and-coming economies may face complex challenges and have fewer resources available to try to improve residents’ health. But with these problems can come unique opportunities for innovation and collaboration that can be leveraged to improve health and wellness for all.
Below are the 2018 rankings of the top 100 urban, up-and-coming communities and their scores across 10 categories that drive health outcomes, on a scale of zero to 100.
Rank | County | Population Health | Equity | Education | Economy | Housing | Food & Nutrition | Environment | Public Safety | Community Vitality | Infrastructure | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Island County, Washington | 75.3 | 69.8 | 51.5 | 44.8 | 51.7 | 74.7 | 77.2 | 77.7 | 57.3 | 55.4 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Bennington County, Vermont | 68.8 | 68.3 | 62.4 | 51.4 | 47.4 | 69.5 | 70.2 | 64.5 | 59.6 | 65.8 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Montgomery County, Virginia | 66.3 | 74.5 | 61.8 | 51.4 | 51.7 | 66.9 | 58.1 | 68.6 | 43.2 | 87.6 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Latah County, Idaho | 76.4 | 63.9 | 61.6 | 51.0 | 53.2 | 69.2 | 65.7 | 60.0 | 43.6 | 77.5 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Transylvania County, North Carolina | 59.7 | 72.4 | 41.7 | 50.1 | 66.8 | 60.9 | 89.4 | 66.5 | 68.5 | 53.4 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Leelanau County, Michigan | 65.5 | 49.6 | 35.6 | 53.2 | 56.8 | 72.1 | 68.1 | 71.6 | 82.6 | 64.5 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Sibley County, Minnesota | 74.2 | 65.3 | 39.0 | 53.4 | 43.9 | 60.6 | 69.1 | 85.5 | 65.1 | 57.2 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Kennebec County, Maine | 78.8 | 84.5 | 50.5 | 51.7 | 51.3 | 53.0 | 55.1 | 57.4 | 59.4 | 56.0 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Marquette County, Michigan | 67.7 | 71.7 | 51.2 | 46.4 | 59.0 | 56.9 | 66.1 | 70.4 | 52.5 | 74.7 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Kitsap County, Washington | 74.9 | 70.0 | 54.2 | 53.1 | 44.1 | 74.2 | 52.2 | 62.6 | 50.4 | 64.2 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Hawaii County, Hawaii | 80.7 | 55.2 | 61.0 | 47.6 | 33.5 | 85.5 | 62.1 | 65.2 | 53.3 | 54.8 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Fillmore County, Minnesota | 74.8 | 58.4 | 34.2 | 51.9 | 39.7 | 66.9 | 77.5 | 82.4 | 67.5 | 60.1 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Jefferson County, Iowa | 75.1 | 42.0 | 46.4 | 52.8 | 63.0 | 59.0 | 69.9 | 63.7 | 67.8 | 74.7 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Whitman County, Washington | 69.5 | 63.9 | 75.2 | 42.5 | 52.2 | 62.6 | 65.6 | 70.5 | 26.0 | 79.4 | |||||||||||
| 15 | Benzie County, Michigan | 59.2 | 74.2 | 26.1 | 47.9 | 65.3 | 67.0 | 60.4 | 68.5 | 77.7 | 57.2 | |||||||||||
| 16 | Watauga County, North Carolina | 56.4 | 62.1 | 55.8 | 43.4 | 56.1 | 60.0 | 87.5 | 58.4 | 56.3 | 74.7 | |||||||||||
| 17 | Floyd County, Virginia | 61.2 | 67.9 | 42.0 | 52.4 | 59.0 | 74.2 | 80.7 | 60.6 | 65.2 | 33.3 | |||||||||||
| 18 | Livingston County, New York | 65.1 | 72.6 | 49.8 | 51.3 | 53.3 | 59.6 | 54.9 | 72.6 | 50.9 | 67.7 | |||||||||||
| 19 | Harvey County, Kansas | 60.5 | 74.5 | 49.2 | 53.2 | 50.5 | 52.2 | 65.3 | 64.7 | 53.0 | 76.8 | |||||||||||
| 20 | Monroe County, Indiana | 61.0 | 61.3 | 73.9 | 52.6 | 47.3 | 54.7 | 61.9 | 54.3 | 40.8 | 87.5 | |||||||||||
| 21 | Otsego County, New York | 72.5 | 63.2 | 46.4 | 49.9 | 55.2 | 72.7 | 56.5 | 68.2 | 49.9 | 58.6 | |||||||||||
| 22 | Rutland County, Vermont | 68.7 | 69.8 | 56.7 | 49.9 | 36.7 | 74.6 | 51.6 | 60.4 | 51.6 | 62.6 | |||||||||||
| 23 | Mahaska County, Iowa | 78.2 | 62.2 | 45.9 | 53.4 | 56.4 | 51.2 | 60.5 | 63.7 | 54.7 | 61.5 | |||||||||||
| 24 | Flagler County, Florida | 48.9 | 70.1 | 41.3 | 53.6 | 46.9 | 67.1 | 61.4 | 55.0 | 77.1 | 65.0 | |||||||||||
| 25 | Dickinson County, Michigan | 71.4 | 62.9 | 43.5 | 48.2 | 60.0 | 55.8 | 42.8 | 59.8 | 59.9 | 79.7 |
The remaining 3,000 counties are unranked. To see more information on your county, search here:
The 2018 Healthiest Communities rankings were created in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation and are based on an examination of nearly 3,000 communities across 80 metrics in the 10 health-related categories. Population health and equity are the most heavily weighted categories, based on the assessments of more than a dozen leading experts on what matters most to a community’s health.
These rankings identify the top 100 urban, up-and-coming communities in America, ranging from No. 1 Island County, Washington, to No. 100 Buena Vista County, Iowa. Communities classified as “urban” were metropolitan or micropolitan – areas with substantial central populations and integrated adjacent communities – and were home to at least 20 people per square mile. “Up-and-coming” applies to communities that did not score in the top 50 percent of economies nationwide, although the communities in these rankings did outperform others of similar economic status in the overall Healthiest Communities analysis. “Up-and-coming” also is meant to designate communities that have more room to build and strengthen their economies.
Beyond the rankings, the Healthiest Communities platform offers data and insight on each of the nearly 3,000 communities evaluated.
14.15%
Population Health
12.23%
Equity
12.15%
Education
11.08%
Economy
9.46%
Housing
8.77%
Food & Nutrition
8.62%
Environment
8.46%
Public Safety
7.62%
Community Vitality
7.46%
Infrastructure
CATEGORIES
WEIGHT
Population Health
14.1 %
Equity
12.2 %
Education
12.2 %
Economy
11.1 %
Housing
9.5 %
Food & Nutrition
8.8 %
Environment
8.6 %
Public Safety
8.5 %
Community Vitality
7.6 %
Infrastructure
7.5 %
U.S. News divided communities into four peer groups to allow for fair comparisons between them. See the top 500 overall rankings and the top 100 communities in the other three peer groups:
- Overall Rankings
- Urban, High-Performing Rankings
- Rural, High-Performing Rankings
- Rural, Up-and-Coming Rankings
An Honor Roll also highlights top-performing communities within each of the four peer groups in each of the nine U.S. Census regional divisions: East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, Mountain, New England, Pacific, South Atlantic, West North Central and West South Central.