United States
Overview: 2011
Table of Overall Rankings - 2011 Edition
America’s Health Rankings® — 2011 Edition shows Vermont at the top of the list of healthiest states again this year. The state has steadily risen in the rankings for the last 13 years from a ranking of 17th in 1997 and 1998. New Hampshire is ranked second this year, an improvement from ranking third last year. New Hampshire has ranked in the top 10 states every year of the index. Connecticut is number three, followed by Hawaii and Massachusetts. Mississippi is 50th and the least healthy state, while Louisiana is 49th. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama complete the bottom five states.
Vermont ascended from 20th in 1990 and 1991 to the top position with sustained improvement in the last decade. Vermont’s strengths include its number one position for all health determinants combined, which includes ranking in the top 10 states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low rate of infectious disease, a high usage of early prenatal care, high per capita public health funding, a low rate of uninsured population and ready availability of primary care physicians. Vermont’s challenges are low immunization coverage with 91.2 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving recommended immunizations, relatively high occupational fatalities at 4.3 deaths per 100,000 workers and a high prevalence of binge drinking at 17.1 percent of the population. For further details, see Vermont’s state snapshot .
Mississippi remains 50th this year, the same as the last ten years. It has been in the bottom three states since the 1990 Edition. The state ranks well for a low prevalence of binge drinking, a low violent crime rate and a high rate of immunization coverage. Mississippi’s infectious disease rate improved from 11.9 to 10.5 cases per 100,000 population in the last year. It ranks in the bottom five states on 12 of the 23 measures including a high prevalence of obesity, a low high school graduation rate, a high percentage of children in poverty, limited availability of primary care physicians and a high rate of preventable hospitalizations. Mississippi ranks 48th for all health determinants combined, so its overall ranking is unlikely to change significantly in the near future. For further details, see Mississippi’s state snapshot .
Scores presented in the tables indicate the weighted number of standard deviation units a state is above or below the national norm. For example, Vermont, with a score of 1.197, is slightly more than one standard deviation unit above the national norm and Mississippi, with a score of -0.822, is over three-quarters of a standard deviation below the national average. When comparing states from year to year, differences in score are more important than changes in ranking.
For a state to improve the health of its population, efforts must focus on changing the determinants of health. If a state is significantly better in its score for determinants than its score for outcomes, it will likely improve its overall health ranking in the future. Conversely, if a state is worse in its score for determinants than its score for outcomes, its overall health ranking will likely decline over time. The Determinants and Outcomes table below presents the overall rankings for the determinants, outcomes and their implications for the future. If the current trend is positive, the future overall ranking is more likely to increase; if it is neutral, the future overall ranking will probably stay the same; or if it is negative, the future overall ranking is more likely to decline.
