America’s Health Rankings ™ – 2008 Edition shows Vermont at the top of the list of healthiest states.  This is the second year that Vermont has been ranked number one.  The state has had a steady climb in the rankings for the last eight years from a ranking of 8th in 2001.  Hawaii is ranked second this year; it was third in the 2007 Edition.  New Hampshire is number three, followed by Minnesota and Utah.  Louisiana is 50th and the least healthy state, while Mississippi is 49th.  South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas complete the bottom five states.

Vermont moved from 16th in 1990 to the top position in 2007 and 2008.  Vermont’s strengths include ranking in the top five states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low percentage of children in poverty, high per capita public health funding, ready access to primary care, low geographic disparity of mortality rates within the state and a low premature death rate.  It also ranks first overall in all health determinants combined and ranks in the top 20 states for all measures except two.  Those two challenges are low immunization coverage with 79.8 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations and a high prevalence of binge drinking at 17.3 percent of the population.  For further details, see Vermont’s state snapshot or visit the Nation at a Glance page.
 
Louisiana is 50th this year, down from 49th in the 2007 Edition.  It has been in the bottom two states since the 1990 Edition.  The state ranks well for ready access to prenatal care, a low prevalence of binge drinking, high per capita public health funding and few poor mental health days.   It ranks in the bottom five states on 10 of the 22 measures including a high prevalence of obesity, a high percentage of children in poverty, a high rate of uninsured population, a high incidence of infectious disease, a low rate of high school graduation and many preventable hospitalizations.  It ranks 50th for all health determinants combined, so its overall ranking is unlikely to change significantly in the near future.  For further details, see Louisiana’s state snapshot or visit the Nation at a Glance page.

Table 1 lists the score and ranking for each of the 50 states. 

Scores presented in the tables indicate the percentage a state is above or below the national norm.  For example, Connecticut with a score of 17.5 is 17.5 percent above the national average for that measure.  A negative score means the state is below the national average.  When comparing states from year to year, differences in score are more important than changes in ranking.

Table 1 - 2008 Overall Rankings