Urban, High-Performing Rankings
Measuring health and wellness in similar communities
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Understanding the cultures of communities around the U.S. and how they can overcome obstacles to health is a key driver behind the U.S. News Healthiest Communities rankings, which allow residents to compare their communities with others across the nation of similar geographic status and economic strength.
In measures of health and wellness, it can be difficult to top urban communities with high-performing economies – they tend to boast more accessible health care, stronger schools and more walkable neighborhoods. Still, none scores perfectly in all measures of community well-being, indicating all communities have things to learn from one another.
Below are the 2019 rankings of the top 100 urban, high-performing communities and their scores across 10 categories that drive overall community health, on a scale of zero to 100.
Rank | County |
Rank | County | Population Health | Equity | Education | Economy | Housing | Food & Nutrition | Environment | Public Safety | Community Vitality | Infrastructure | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas County, Colorado | 94.9 | 64.4 | 64.8 | 100 | 65.7 | 65.8 | 84.7 | 79.1 | 84 | 93.8 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Los Alamos County, New Mexico | 100 | 83.3 | 66.7 | 73.2 | 88.5 | 61.5 | 91.8 | 75.4 | 72.1 | 86.7 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Falls Church city, Virginia | 92.8 | 64.1 | 100 | 95 | 51.1 | 67.2 | 63.1 | 96.9 | 71.9 | 86.2 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Loudoun County, Virginia | 90.7 | 51.7 | 81.1 | 100 | 56.1 | 67.4 | 64.1 | 87 | 83.3 | 72.8 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Broomfield County, Colorado | 88.4 | 55.5 | 67.9 | 91.3 | 67.8 | 60.8 | 76.3 | 73.1 | 76.6 | 93.7 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Hamilton County, Indiana | 88.1 | 60.8 | 76.3 | 92.2 | 70.7 | 42.4 | 60.5 | 62.4 | 79.7 | 83.9 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Carver County, Minnesota | 83.3 | 51.4 | 71.3 | 91.9 | 67.9 | 47.7 | 72.3 | 77.5 | 76.3 | 81.2 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Delaware County, Ohio | 84.5 | 65.1 | 75.6 | 85.2 | 71.9 | 41.3 | 60.1 | 66.4 | 80.1 | 79.4 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Howard County, Maryland | 91.9 | 49.5 | 80.5 | 92.2 | 58 | 63.1 | 54.5 | 70.3 | 65.6 | 86.1 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Fairfax County, Virginia | 95 | 43.5 | 78.6 | 92.4 | 55.2 | 68.6 | 68.8 | 74.9 | 53.7 | 83 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Ozaukee County, Wisconsin | 93.2 | 62.3 | 73.8 | 77.9 | 59.6 | 54.5 | 69.5 | 71.2 | 69.6 | 76.5 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Fairfax city, Virginia | 80.8 | 59.5 | 69 | 88.5 | 44.1 | 68.4 | 64.4 | 91.9 | 63.6 | 82.4 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Boulder County, Colorado | 92.5 | 27.5 | 67.1 | 87.4 | 53.3 | 72.1 | 83.4 | 77.4 | 61.4 | 92.4 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Washington County, Minnesota | 84.9 | 57 | 70.1 | 87.9 | 59.7 | 44.3 | 64.5 | 72.9 | 70.6 | 86.2 | |||||||||||
| 15 | Williamson County, Tennessee | 84.4 | 55.8 | 72.5 | 90.7 | 68.3 | 43.9 | 51.5 | 61.1 | 85.1 | 75.1 | |||||||||||
| 16 | Morris County, New Jersey | 82.4 | 49.4 | 85.5 | 89.5 | 57.1 | 63.1 | 61 | 79.3 | 58.2 | 71.9 | |||||||||||
| 17 | Marin County, California | 96.3 | 25.3 | 74.6 | 89.5 | 36.7 | 88.2 | 70.1 | 86.8 | 60 | 74.2 | |||||||||||
| 18 | Arlington County, Virginia | 87.6 | 31.8 | 82.2 | 90 | 57.7 | 79.7 | 67.5 | 89 | 42.6 | 76.1 | |||||||||||
| 19 | Bremer County, Iowa | 83.3 | 58.3 | 61.4 | 65.3 | 81.2 | 56.5 | 66.5 | 72.2 | 66.9 | 92.7 | |||||||||||
| 20 | Hunterdon County, New Jersey | 81.9 | 58 | 80.6 | 86.7 | 47.9 | 72.8 | 59.7 | 80.5 | 68.1 | 53.8 | |||||||||||
| 21 | Dallas County, Iowa | 81.3 | 43.6 | 74.6 | 83.2 | 73.5 | 49.7 | 59.2 | 67.6 | 74.7 | 86.7 | |||||||||||
| 22 | Clear Creek County, Colorado | 71.8 | 52.1 | 45.2 | 71.6 | 60.6 | 81 | 94.4 | 87.5 | 78 | 64.4 | |||||||||||
| 23 | Lincoln County, South Dakota | 89.7 | 52.8 | 61.1 | 84 | 77.6 | 35.3 | 65.8 | 60.9 | 76.2 | 84.1 | |||||||||||
| 24 | Teller County, Colorado | 73.3 | 79.4 | 36.5 | 64.6 | 47.8 | 75.5 | 96.7 | 86 | 80.2 | 60.5 | |||||||||||
| 25 | Collin County, Texas | 75.3 | 46.1 | 78.7 | 95.4 | 65 | 53.7 | 65.7 | 67.2 | 65.2 | 76.9 |
The 2019 Healthiest Communities rankings were created in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation and are based on an examination of nearly 3,000 communities across 81 metrics in the 10 health-related categories. Population health and equity are the most heavily weighted categories, based on the assessments of more than a dozen leading experts on what matters most to a community’s health.
These rankings identify the top 100 urban, high-performing communities in America, ranging from No. 1 Douglas County, Colorado, to No. 100 Saunders County, Nebraska. Communities classified as “urban” were metropolitan or micropolitan – areas with substantial central populations and integrated adjacent communities – and were home to at least 20 people per square mile. “High-performing” communities scored in the top half of the economy category out of all urban places assessed for the overall Healthiest Communities rankings.
Beyond the rankings, the Healthiest Communities platform offers data and insight on each of the nearly 3,000 communities evaluated. Users can dive into the data with our interactive Data Explorer.
14.15%
Population Health
12.23%
Equity
12.15%
Education
11.08%
Economy
9.46%
Housing
8.77%
Food & Nutrition
8.62%
Environment
8.46%
Public Safety
7.62%
Community Vitality
7.46%
Infrastructure
CATEGORIES
WEIGHT
Population Health
14.1%
Equity
12.2%
Education
12.2%
Economy
11.1%
Housing
9.5%
Food & Nutrition
8.8%
Environment
8.6%
Public Safety
8.5%
Community Vitality
7.6%
Infrastructure
7.5%
Although many of the Healthiest Communities overall are urban, high-performing communities, they make up only a portion of the U.S. See the top 500 overall rankings and the top 100 communities in the other three peer groups created by U.S. News to allow for fair comparisons: