Rural, High-Performing Rankings
Measuring health and wellness in similar communities
(George Rose/Getty Images)
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.
People who live in rural communities are more likely to own their homes and live in the state where they were born than those in urban areas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And while access to care and transportation barriers can pose challenges, residents of rural communities with high-performing economies typically live in safer neighborhoods and fare better in terms of housing than their urban counterparts.
Below are the 2018 rankings of the top 100 rural, high-performing 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 | Routt County, Colorado | 84.2 | 58.9 | 58.6 | 76.6 | 52.8 | 88.1 | 85.2 | 76.0 | 74.8 | 85.5 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Ouray County, Colorado | 91.7 | 58.1 | 56.3 | 63.7 | 67.4 | 95.1 | 82.0 | 76.7 | 90.0 | 55.0 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Sublette County, Wyoming | 81.0 | 79.2 | 65.6 | 65.6 | 76.3 | 71.5 | 81.9 | 68.2 | 81.4 | 56.1 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Grand County, Colorado | 87.1 | 72.9 | 47.3 | 66.5 | 39.7 | 86.5 | 84.5 | 86.8 | 75.8 | 77.4 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Teton County, Wyoming | 85.5 | 43.0 | 64.9 | 80.1 | 29.8 | 85.8 | 87.5 | 74.8 | 71.2 | 96.3 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Winneshiek County, Iowa | 94.1 | 75.7 | 57.8 | 61.0 | 68.5 | 75.8 | 70.9 | 62.2 | 65.1 | 79.5 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Chaffee County, Colorado | 73.9 | 72.3 | 47.1 | 59.4 | 58.0 | 87.2 | 96.3 | 78.4 | 79.1 | 71.5 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Morgan County, Utah | 83.5 | 77.0 | 63.0 | 77.9 | 54.0 | 56.0 | 75.0 | 77.7 | 75.1 | 63.6 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Pitkin County, Colorado | 78.6 | 39.7 | 64.7 | 76.4 | 38.8 | 84.1 | 84.2 | 82.1 | 77.3 | 80.1 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Mono County, California | 78.6 | 88.2 | 55.7 | 62.0 | 20.1 | 93.3 | 89.9 | 74.8 | 47.0 | 86.5 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Valley County, Idaho | 86.1 | 87.0 | 50.0 | 58.0 | 51.6 | 77.1 | 77.2 | 49.8 | 80.7 | 66.9 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Summit County, Utah | 84.2 | 40.1 | 55.0 | 82.2 | 40.5 | 89.9 | 65.0 | 78.3 | 74.5 | 75.9 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Gunnison County, Colorado | 78.4 | 56.2 | 57.8 | 58.6 | 42.7 | 81.8 | 89.0 | 65.9 | 67.4 | 99.4 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Park County, Colorado | 77.6 | 88.5 | 32.3 | 71.8 | 46.3 | 83.2 | 86.0 | 88.6 | 78.1 | 25.5 | |||||||||||
| 15 | Nantucket County, Massachusetts | 79.6 | 56.0 | 61.8 | 78.3 | 45.2 | 84.0 | 52.2 | 54.0 | 76.2 | 76.4 | |||||||||||
| 16 | Elbert County, Colorado | 76.2 | 73.1 | 40.9 | 79.9 | 46.7 | 83.5 | 63.6 | 77.4 | 87.4 | 30.1 | |||||||||||
| 17 | Jefferson County, Montana | 78.7 | 68.9 | 43.9 | 59.9 | 64.1 | 72.6 | 65.1 | 73.9 | 83.2 | 65.5 | |||||||||||
| 18 | Juneau City and Borough, Alaska | 83.6 | 78.8 | 57.7 | 64.8 | 46.6 | 69.5 | 60.0 | 66.0 | 65.2 | 72.3 | |||||||||||
| 19 | Storey County, Nevada | 66.4 | 72.4 | 52.4 | 57.9 | 91.2 | 73.5 | 51.8 | 67.0 | 87.6 | 52.4 | |||||||||||
| 20 | Sheridan County, Wyoming | 84.7 | 68.2 | 65.2 | 62.1 | 52.0 | 72.4 | 68.3 | 44.7 | 65.9 | 80.3 | |||||||||||
| 21 | San Miguel County, Colorado | 78.2 | 40.3 | 49.7 | 67.1 | 44.3 | 93.8 | 92.4 | 68.5 | 67.2 | 80.6 | |||||||||||
| 22 | San Juan County, Washington | 77.5 | 59.1 | 46.8 | 57.2 | 43.1 | 85.5 | 72.2 | 71.2 | 86.7 | 72.9 | |||||||||||
| 23 | Addison County, Vermont | 81.4 | 61.0 | 71.3 | 64.9 | 52.6 | 82.7 | 50.9 | 68.4 | 61.6 | 62.0 | |||||||||||
| 24 | Cook County, Minnesota | 88.4 | 52.9 | 50.3 | 52.9 | 57.1 | 74.6 | 87.3 | 68.3 | 80.9 | 59.4 | |||||||||||
| 25 | Lincoln County, Wyoming | 72.6 | 69.6 | 58.7 | 67.8 | 45.4 | 70.5 | 83.1 | 79.0 | 69.8 | 46.8 |
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 rural, high-performing communities in America, ranging from No. 1 Routt County, Colorado, to No. 100 Hamilton County, New York. Communities classified as “rural” were not metropolitan or micropolitan – areas with substantial central populations and integrated adjacent communities – or were home to fewer than 20 people per square mile. Those designated as “high-performing” scored in the top half of the economy category among all places assessed for the overall Healthiest Communities rankings.
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 %
About a third of the top 500 Healthiest Communities overall are rural, high-performing communities, underscoring the value of comparing similar communities. See the top 500 overall rankings and the top 100 communities in the other three peer groups created by U.S. News to allow for fair comparisons:
- Overall Rankings
- Urban, High-Performing Rankings
- Urban, Up-and-Coming 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.