The second annual Healthiest Communities rankings, compiled in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation, offer insight into how dozens of factors come together to shape health across the country. By providing a diagnostic scan of the nation, Healthiest Communities aims to draw a clear link between where people live and how well they live—and for how long.
“There’s something about the places where we spend time that influence our health and well-being,” says Justin Denney, an associate professor of sociology and a health disparities researcher at Washington State University. “Is there access to safe housing, opportunities for employment or to get fresh foods—or are you bound by convenience stores that are around?”
Like many of the top counties in the Healthiest Communities rankings, Douglas County, Colorado, is well-educated and wealthy, with a median household income of about $111,000 in recent years.
Many of America’s poorest counties, meanwhile, fall far outside the rankings, underscoring the crucial need for cross-sector partnerships that promote health equity and ensure wealth is not the only path to wellness.
“We absolutely should be trying to improve resources available to all kinds of families in all kinds of places,” Denney says.