A new report says northwest Iowa’s Sioux County is the healthiest county in the state, while Montgomery County, in the southwest, ranks last. The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps report rates counties’ health outcomes nationwide based on a range of factors. Michael Stevenson, with the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute — which produces the report, says Iowa’s top-ranked counties all have the same things in common.
Stevenson says Iowa’s overall voter turnout is higher than the national average, but there’s a lot of variation in rates at the county level.
The report lists Iowa’s top five healthiest counties as: Sioux, Winneshiek, Dallas, Mitchell and Hancock, while the bottom-ranked five are: Pottawattamie, Lee, Clarke, Appanoose and last, Montgomery. Around our area, Kossuth County checks in at #40 in the rankings, Winnebago County #25, Palo Alto County #66 and Emmet County #79. Find out more online at www.countyhealthrankings.org.
