San Benito is the second healthiest county in the state,
according to new rankings made public this week.
The rankings throughout the United States
– called County Health Rankings – grade each jurisdiction on
such categories as mortality, morbidity, adult obesity, smoking,
clinical care, social and economic factors and the physical
environment.
San Benito County came in second among 56 counties in California. Coming in first was Marin County. Nearby Santa Clara County ranked fourth, while Santa Cruz was eighth and Monterey County was 16th. The lowest-ranked county on the list was Del Norte.
Some of San Benito County’s higher rankings in the individual categories included second for morbidity factors such as poor or fair health and low birth weight; fifth for physical environment factors such as air pollution and liquor store density; and fifth for health behaviors such as adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking and the teen birth rate, according to the data, found at www.countyhealthrankings.org.
Some of San Benito County’s lower rankings in categories included 45th in clinical care for such factors as uninsured adults, primary care provider rates and preventable hospital stays; and 33rd for social and economic factors such as high school graduation rates, unemployment, children in poverty and single-parent households, according to the data.
“County Health Rankings” is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin, and is modeled after America’s Health Rankings, a report that has graded states’ health for the past 20 years. In 2009, California ranked 23rd among the 50 states.
