U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT NEWS RELEASE
U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in rankings and civic journalism, has unveiled the 2024 Healthiest Communities rankings. https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities?src=usn_pr its sixth edition, the Healthiest Communities rankings serve as a tool to inform residents, community health leaders and elected officials about policies and best practices for better health outcomes.
For the second time since 2018, Falls Church, Virginia claims the top spot in the rankings with the highest overall score, achieving top 20 results across five of the 10 categories, including a No. 1 ranking in Education, No. 4 ranking in Population Health and No. 6 ranking in Economy. However, Falls Church lands outside the project’s threshold for the top-performing communities in the Equity and Housing categories.
Los Alamos County, New Mexico, the No. 1 community in the previous three editions of the rankings, takes the overall No. 2 spot this year, with high marks in Housing (No. 1) and Population Health (No. 2). Rounding out the top five are Douglas County, Colorado at No. 3, Sioux County, Iowa at No. 4 and Hamilton County, Indiana at No. 5. https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/new-mexico/los-alamos-county
“Evaluating community health is crucial as we consider the well-being of citizens across our country,” said Julia Haines, U.S. News data editor. “The Healthiest Communities rankings examine which communities offer the greatest opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. They also highlight that even the ‘healthiest struggle in certain areas.”
Additional key findings from the 2024 edition of Healthiest Communities include:
● Northern Virginia and Iowa are each home to four of the top 20 Healthiest Communities. These include Falls Church (No. 1), Fairfax County (No. 14), Fairfax city (No. 15) and Arlington (No. 19) in Northern Virginia, and Sioux County (No. 4), Dallas County (No. 6), Bremer County (No. 9) and Grundy County (No. 18) in Iowa.
● The states with the highest average overall community-level scores in the analysis are Rhode Island, Iowa and New Hampshire, whereas the lowest average scores are found in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.
● Five of the top 10 communities with the longest life expectancy are in Colorado: Summit County (93), Pitkin County (92.7), Eagle County (88.9), San Miguel County (88.3) and Ouray County (87.5). Despite its high life expectancy, Ouray County was not assessed for the rankings.
● Two metrics address disparities by census block groups or tracts within acounty. Falls Church, Virginia, leads with the lowest neighborhood disparity inpoverty, while Weston County, Wyoming, excels with the lowest neighborhood disparity in educational attainment.
● The gender wage gap is most prevalent in Eureka County, Nevada. Additionally, in eight counties in Georgia and seven in New Mexico, among others, women’s median earnings meet or exceed those of men.
The 2024 Healthiest Communities rankings and accompanying analysis are based on an evaluation of approximately 2,800 communities nationwide. The project looks at how counties and county equivalents perform across 92 health and health-related metrics to capture how they best serve their residents in 10 main categories: Community Vitality, Economy, Education, Environment, Equity, Food & Nutrition, Population Health, Housing, Infrastructure and Public Safety. The top 500 counties receive a ranking.
To compile the rankings and create the overall Healthiest Communities project, U.S. News partnered with the University of Missouri Extension Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES), a research institution skilled in community health assessment. Overall, the rankings are based on metrics drawn from sources such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
To view the full rankings and search county profiles, visit
www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/rankings.