Walton County Not As Healthy As Neighboring Oconee and Gwinnett Counties

A study released this week by University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds Walton County healthier than Barrow County, but nowhere near as healthy as neighboring Oconee County and Gwinnett County.

The rankings show that how long and how well people live depends on multiple factors including rates of smoking, education, and access to healthy food, a news release states. They also help to lay the groundwork for governors, mayors, business leaders, and citizens across the country to take action to improve health.

Some national trends this year, according to www.countyhealthrankings.org, show the following:

• Child poverty rates have not improved since 2000, with more than one in five children living in poverty.
• Violent crime has decreased by almost 50 percent over the past two decades.
• The counties where people don’t live as long and don’t feel as well have the highest rates of smoking, teen births, and physical inactivity, as well as more preventable hospital stays.
• Teen birth rates are more than twice as high in the least healthy counties than in the healthiest counties.

This year Walton County came in 33rd in "Health Factors" and 30th in "Health Outcomes" compared to Oconee which came in 2nd and 3rd respectively in those areas. Gwinnett County did much better than Walton too, coming in 4th in Health Factors and 8th in Health Outcomes. Fayette was first in "Health Factors" and second in "Health Outcomes" behind Forsyth. Taliaferro and Clay counties were at the bottom of the lists. 

2013 County Health Rankings

  Barrow

Gwinnett

Oconee

Walton 

Overall Ga. Rank Health Outcomes

  44

8

3

30

Overall Ga. Rank Health Factors

  75

4

2

33

Mortality

  46

4

2

62

Morbidity

  57

8

7

14

Health Behaviors

  131

8

5

29

Clinical Care

103 

42

2

48

Social and Economic Factors

  40

20

1

31

Physical Environment

  109

76

65

122

To search for results for other Georgia counties, click here, or compare data to other states.