Summer is a great time to get healthy, especially with warm weather in Michigan making it easier to work out in the great outdoors. If you’ve ever wondered how healthy Michigan is compared to other states, a new study gives some insight into our health rating and the healthiest areas of the state.
The crew at USNews.com have put together a study to determine the healthiest communities in the U.S. “Health is inextricably linked to where we live,” they state in the study. “In fact, it’s been said a person’s ZIP code can predict more about a person’s health than their genetic code. The 2022 Healthiest Communities rankings highlight this important point by analyzing 89 factors that fuel and form the health of residents across nearly 3,000 U.S. counties and county equivalents.”
As for methodology, the study states, “Counties are assessed on a 100-point scoring system tied to how they perform relative to one another across 10 health-related categories, ranging from education and the economy to community vitality, equity, infrastructure and public safety. They receive a ranking based on their performance as well.”
These are the 25 counties out of the 500 ranked that scored the highest overall, making them the Healthiest Communities in the U.S. None of Michigan’s counties fell inside that range. In fact, our healthiest county is No. 116 on the tally. Not so great, but it could be worse. The No. 1 healthiest county in America is Los Alamos County, New Mexico, followed by Falls Church city, Virginia, and Douglas County, Colorado.
Read on for the Michigan counties that scored the highest in this report and have been named the healthiest in Michigan. I recognize most of these, but my county is not on the list. We have work to do throughout Michigan to get healthy! Read the full list of the healthiest counties in America here.
