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 says that Cerro Gordo County is 85th, Kossuth is 40th, Wright is 38th, Worth is 30th, and Winnebago County ranks 25th.
The report lists Hancock County as 5th. Iowa’s top four healthiest counties as: Sioux, Winneshiek, Dallas, and Mitchell while the bottom-ranked five are: Pottawattamie, Lee, Clarke, Appanoose and last, Montgomery. Anyone who wants to see where other counties rank can go to countyhealthrankings.org
