Boulder County Among Country’s Healthiest Communties: U.S. News

BOULDER, CO -- Communities in Colorado are among some of the healthiest in the United States, taking seven of the top spots in a newly released set of rankings. Though Boulder County slotted in near the top at a nationwide 20th place overall, it couldn't match up to neighboring Douglas County, which took the overall top slot for 2019, or Broomfield County, which ranked fifth.

A total of 500 U.S. communities are featured in the rankings; graded for various health-related factors like population health and environment. Los Alamos County in New Mexico took the No. 2 spot while Falls Church in Virginia ranked No. 3, dropping from the No.1 spot in 2018. Loudoun County in Virginia and Broomfield, County in Colorado came in at No. 4 and No. 5 respectively. Overall, seven Colorado communities ranked among the top 20. Iowa was another state that fared well in the rankings, taking 62 of the top 500 spots.

Released on Tuesday, the 2019 healthiest communities rankings are a joint collaboration between U.S. News & World Report and the Aetna Foundation. To come up with the finalized list, U.S. News and the Aetna Foundation evaluated nearly 3,000 communities across multiple health-related metrics in 10 categories.

Below are the 10 categories the communities were graded on (Several metrics fall under each category and in total 81 metrics were used):

Population Health
Equity
Education
Economy
Housing
Food & Nutrition
Environment
Public Safety
Community Vitality
Infrastructure

Boulder was ranked 13th in the "Urban, High Performing" category. Its high scores on health, economy and environment were drawn down by low marks for housing and equity. Boulder showed lower racial diversity than the national average, as well as a greater gap in degree attainment among racial groups.

65 percent of the Boulder County population has at least a bachelor's degree, compared to the national average of 38.5 percent. Boulder has both higher median wages and lower unemployment than community averages across the country, but local workers need to spend more time working each week to pay for their housing here, an average of 45.8 weekly hours, above the national rate of 40.9 hours.

Along with the overall healthiest communities rankings, U.S. News also created rankings based on the urban or rural status of individual communities. Those were grouped into four categories: urban high-performing, urban up-and-coming, rural high-performing and rural up-and-coming.

Below are the top ranked communities in each category:

Urban, High-Performing:
Douglas County, Colorado
Los Alamos County, New Mexico
Falls Church City, Virginia
Loudoun County, Virginia
Broomfield County, Colorado

Rural, High-Performing:
Teton County, Wyoming
Chaffee County, Colorado
Morgan County, Utah
Routt County, Colorado
Jefferson County, Montana

Urban, Up-and-Coming
Houston County, Minnesota
Hood River County, Oregon
Bennington County, Vermont
Island County, Washington
Marquette County, Michigan

Rural, Up-and-Coming
Wallowa County, Oregon
Lincoln County, Washington
Calhoun County, Iowa
Iron County, Wisconsin
Baylor County, Texas

U.S. News worked with the University of Missouri Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES) to compile the rankings. The publication also consulted with members of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. Data came from sources like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.