A new study by the Population Health Institute lists the healthiest and the least healthy counties in each state.

The Institute says the healthiest counties in Missouri are St. Charles, Platte, Christian, Atchison, and Scotland.  The least healthy counties are Butler, Dunklin, Washington, New Madrid, Ripley, and Pemiscot.  

The study says 17 percent of St. Charles County residents smoke–the state average is 24 percent and the national average is 14.  The county is a little below the state’s obesity rate of 31 percent; its residents are slightly more physically active; the teen birth rate is less than half the state average. So is its rate of sexually transmitted disease infections.  It has about 60 percent more primary care doctors than the state average. Its premature death rate is about one-third less than the state average.

Pemiscot County’s premature death rate is about double the state average; its smoking rate is above average. so is its obesity rate; Its motor vehicle crash death rate is double the state average and its sexually transmitted disease rate is about half-again the state average.

The institute is at the University of Wisconsin.  The study was financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

You can check you county’s ranking:

 (http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/rankings/ranking-methods/download-rankings-data/MO