Jefferson County has its health issues: It has no hospitals, for one thing. The prevalence of cancer is relatively high, as are so-called “deaths of despair” – suicides and drug overdoses. There’s a significant disparity of poverty rates within the county.
But in the scheme of things, county residents are very, very well. How well? In this year’s survey of the nation’s healthiest communities by the magazine U.S. News & World Report, Jefferson came out fifth among rural counties and 15th overall. That’s among nearly 3,000 counties and county-equivalents. It rose from 85th overall in the magazine’s inaugural 2018 ranking.
The “Healthiest Communities” project, developed by U.S. News in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation, is an ambitious undertaking. It aggregates and analyzes data for each community against 81 metrics in 10 categories, including population health, economy, housing, and public safety. The magazine says it focused on factors that drive community health and well-being outcomes.
