How Healthy is Your County?

The University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a set of reports which rank the health of every county in the United States. You can compare your county to other counties in your state. The rankings are based on how healthy people are and how long they live in each county. The rankings also take into account key factors that effect health, such as: air pollution levels, rates of violent crime, smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, and the number of children living in poverty. These County Health Rankings are online and can be searched here.

Pasco County is ranked 37th out of 67 counties in Florida in Health Outcomes and 25th out of 67 counties in Health Factors. The Pasco County Summary for 2010 provided the following statistics:

•   9,150 premature deaths (the target value is 6,978)
• 17% of people reported poor or fair health
• the average number of poor physical health days reported by people in the last 30 days: 4.7 days
• 24% of adults do not have health insurance
• motor vehicle crash death rate per 100,000 population: 24 (target is 16)

The Florida summary report can be found here.