COLUMBUS – Two of the five healthiest counties in Ohio are in the Columbus area, including Delaware County, which ranks No. 1 in a new county-by-county breakdown of the nation’s health.
Delaware County has stood at the top of the rankings for three straight years.
Union County also ranked in the top five, at No. 4, with Fairfield County making the top 20 at No. 15.
Franklin County, the state’s most populous county, ranked 49th, trailing Madison (No. 25), Licking (31) and Pickaway (42), according to the rankings released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
2017 County Health Rankings (Ohio)
1. Delaware
4. Union
15.Fairfield
25.Madison
31.Licking
42.Pickaway
49.Franklin
88.Pike
-Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Univ. of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
Delaware County was first in Ohio for both health outcomes – a measure of how healthy residents were when the most recent data was compiled in 2015 — and health factors, which are based on how healthy people will be in the future.
The report credited Delaware County residents with engaging in the healthiest behavior among Ohio’s 88 counties, a ranking that covers nine categories, including adult smoking, adult obesity, food environment, physical inactivity, access to exercises opportunities, excessive drinking, alcohol-impaired driving deaths, sexually transmitted infections and teen births.
Bringing up the rear in the central Ohio rankings, Franklin County residents experience a chance of premature death that is higher than the national average, though the odds have improved over the past 11 years.
Fifteen percent of county residents reported that they were in “fair” or “Poor” health, compared with Delaware County’s 10 percent.
Pike County, in southern Ohio, was the lowest-ranked county because of a high rate of adult smoking and obesity, coupled with high unemployment and a shortage of physicians.