WAVERLY — Two area counties were included in the nation’s top 20 healthiest communities, according to a report released Tuesday.
Bremer County was ranked number nine, while Grundy county came in at number 18. Two other Iowa counties were in the top 10 – Sioux County at number four and Dallas County at number six.
U.S. News & World Report looked at approximately 2,800 counties nationwide and analyzed 92 health and health-related metrics. The main categories are community vitality, economy, education, environment, food and nutrition, population health, housing, infrastructure and public safety. The top 500 counties received a ranking.
The report shows Iowa has one of the highest average overall community-level scores, along with Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Sixty five of the 99 counties made the top 500.
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Bremer County had four categories in the top 20% of ranked communities. Community vitality scores looked at community stability and social capital. Bremer was ranked 28th in the country for that category. It also received 26th place in housing which looks at affordability, capacity and quality.
Grundy County fared better than Bremer in the housing category, ranking 14th. Nearby Chickasaw County received fifth place, as well as 13th in the equity category.
Last year, Bremer was 28th and Grundy 11th in overall ranks.
In overall ranks, Chickasaw County is 102nd, Buchanan County is 155th and Butler County is 267th. Black Hawk and Tama counties were not in the top 500 healthiest communities.
Black Hawk ranked in a few categories, however. It is 261st in infrastructure, 300th in education and 463rd in population health. Tama only ranked in one category – 276th in public safety.
None of the counties in or surrounding the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area ranked in the environment category which analyzed air and water, natural environment, and natural hazards. Only 20 Iowa counties ranked above 500 in that category.
The top Iowa county in each category is as follows:
Education: Story County, fourth place.Housing: Chickasaw County, fifth place.Population health: Johnson County, ninth place.Equity: Chickasaw County, 13th place.Infrastructure: Woodbury County, 13th place.Public safety: Shelby County, 14th place.Community vitality: Madison County, 24th place.Economy: Dallas County, 38th place.Food and nutrition: Dallas County, 39th place.Environment: Lucas County, 118th place.
The top three healthiest counties in the U.S. are Falls Church in Virginia, Los Alamos in New Mexico and Douglas in Colorado.
More information on rankings can be found online at usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities.
Counties with the longest life expectancy in Iowa
Counties with the longest life expectancy in Iowa
Life expectancy rates have been on the rise in the United States, with an increase of nearly seven years over the past half-century. (The average lifespan was 70.8 in 1970 and was documented as 77.5 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) There are many factors that can contribute to how long you’ll live—from genetics to how much you drink or smoke, your diet and weight, and how physically active you are. But then there’s the matter of where you live.
In some areas of the globe, dubbed “blue zones,” there is a disproportionately high number of residents who live to at least 100 years old. These five particular pockets of the world—Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica, Okinawa, Japan; and Sardinia, Italy—are heavily researched, as scientists try to determine what it is about these residents’ diets, lifestyles, and environments that can promote such longevity. While it may not be as obvious of a contributing factor, where you live can play a significant role in your overall lifespan, which is why some states and even counties in the U.S. tend to see longer life expectancy rates compared to others.
By delving into 2024 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Stacker identified the counties with the longest life expectancy in Iowa. Life expectancy measures the average number of years from birth a person can expect to live and is calculated based on the number of deaths in a given time period and the average number of people at risk of dying during that period. Counties with unreliable or insufficient data were excluded from the analysis. Mortality data came from the National Vital Statistics System.
Read on to see if your county made the list.
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#45. Calhoun County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.1 years
— Same as state average
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#45. Clay County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.1 years
— Same as state average
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#45. Wright County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.1 years
— Same as state average
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#45. Iowa County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.1 years
— Same as state average
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#43. Howard County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.2 years
— 0.1 years higher than the state average
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#39. Butler County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.3 years
— 0.2 years higher than the state average
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#39. Floyd County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.3 years
— 0.2 years higher than the state average
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#39. Kossuth County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.3 years
— 0.2 years higher than the state average
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#35. Adams County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.4 years
— 0.3 years higher than the state average
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#35. Sac County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.4 years
— 0.3 years higher than the state average
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#35. Davis County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.4 years
— 0.3 years higher than the state average
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#35. Marion County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.4 years
— 0.3 years higher than the state average
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#33. Chickasaw County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.5 years
— 0.4 years higher than the state average
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#33. Poweshiek County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.5 years
— 0.4 years higher than the state average
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#32. Carroll County
– Life expectancy: 78.6 years
— 0.5 years higher than the state average
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#30. Warren County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.7 years
— 0.6 years higher than the state average
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#30. Shelby County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.7 years
— 0.6 years higher than the state average
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#27. Crawford County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.8 years
— 0.7 years higher than the state average
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#27. Washington County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.8 years
— 0.7 years higher than the state average
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#25. Jefferson County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 78.9 years
— 0.8 years higher than the state average
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#23. Worth County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 79.0 years
— 0.9 years higher than the state average
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#22. Delaware County
– Life expectancy: 79.1 years
— 1.0 years higher than the state average
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#21. Linn County
– Life expectancy: 79.2 years
— 1.1 years higher than the state average
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#20. Dubuque County
– Life expectancy: 79.3 years
— 1.2 years higher than the state average
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#17. Clayton County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 79.4 years
— 1.3 years higher than the state average
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#17. Guthrie County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 79.4 years
— 1.3 years higher than the state average
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#16. Mitchell County
– Life expectancy: 79.6 years
— 1.5 years higher than the state average
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#14. Benton County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 79.7 years
— 1.6 years higher than the state average
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#13. Plymouth County
– Life expectancy: 79.8 years
— 1.7 years higher than the state average
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#11. Buena Vista County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 80.0 years
— 1.9 years higher than the state average
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#11. Bremer County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 80.0 years
— 1.9 years higher than the state average
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#9. Cedar County (tie)
– Life expectancy: 80.2 years
— 2.1 years higher than the state average
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#8. Jones County
– Life expectancy: 80.5 years
— 2.4 years higher than the state average
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#7. Dickinson County
– Life expectancy: 80.7 years
— 2.6 years higher than the state average
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#6. Story County
– Life expectancy: 81.8 years
— 3.7 years higher than the state average
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#5. Johnson County
– Life expectancy: 82.0 years
— 3.9 years higher than the state average
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#2. Lyon County
– Life expectancy: 82.7 years
— 4.6 years higher than the state average
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#1. Sioux County
– Life expectancy: 83.1 years
— 5.0 years higher than the state average
This story features data reporting by Karim Noorani, writing by Kiersten Hickman, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 50 states.
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Publish date : 2024-08-05 22:06:00
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