• News and Events Home
• Media Contacts
• Publications
• Upcoming Events

Madison, Wisconsin, and Princeton, N.J. - The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today released the 2011 County Health Rankings.

The County Health Rankings are the most comprehensive report of its kind to rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states by using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live. The rankings illustrate that where we live, learn work and play influences our health and how long we live.

Ozaukee County has the healthiest residents in Wisconsin and Menominee County is the least healthy county in the state, according to the 2011 County Health Rankings.

Wisconsin's five healthiest counties are:

• Ozaukee
• St. Croix
• Washington
• Waukesha
• Taylor

The five counties in the poorest health are:

• Menominee
• Adams
• Marquette
• Milwaukee
• Jackson

The healthiest of Wisconsin's 72 counties are largely suburban counties near the city of Milwaukee and on the border with the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area with the exception of Taylor County; the least healthy counties are primarily located in rural areas of central and northern Wisconsin with the exception of Milwaukee County, the state's most urban county, in the southeast.

"The rankings help county leaders see what is affecting the health of local residents," says Dr. Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "Leading a healthy lifestyle is much easier if you live in a healthy community - such as one that has access to quality early childhood education programs, access to healthier foods or has created more opportunities for physical activity."

And leaders around Wisconsin are using the report to build healthier communities.

"In Menominee County we're using the County Health Rankings to engage the Menominee Indian Tribe and school district, College of the Menominee Nation, and tribal enterprises to align plans for improving health in our community," says Jerry Waukau, health administrator of the Menominee Tribal Clinic.

"Addictive behaviors, obesity and smoking all appear as areas of need in the Rankings. We think they will also emerge as priorities in our planning. With our leaders and community members we are beginning the process of rebuilding our community."

The online report includes a snapshot of each county in Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health for each county:

• Premature death
• The percent of people who report being in fair or poor health
• The numbers of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health
• The rate of low-birth weight infants

The rankings also outline the factors that contribute to a community's health within four categories:

• Health behavior
• Clinical care
• Social and economic factors
• Physical environment

The health factors the researchers looked at include:

• Rates of adult smoking
• Adult obesity
• Excessive drinking among adults
• Teenage births
• The number of uninsured adults
• Availability of primary care providers
• Preventable hospital stays
• High school graduation rates
• Adults who attended college
• Children in poverty
• Community safety
• Access to healthy foods
• Air pollution

"These rankings help everyone see how much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor's office and where we live matters to our health," says Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

To help counties translate the Rankings into action, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey announced the foundation was launching a new program to help communities improve the health of their residents. Under this new program - part of an initiative called Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health - RWJF will provide grants to strengthen broad-based community efforts to improve health.