The Rankings

Wisconsin

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Strengths:

• High rate of high school graduation
• Low rate of uninsured population
• Low incidence of infectious disease
• Low percentage of children in poverty

Challenges:

• High prevalence of binge drinking
• Low per capita public health funding

Highlights:

• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 15.5 percent to 12.7 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, diabetes decreased from 8.2 percent to 7.1 percent of the population; 309,000 Wisconsin adults have diabetes.
• While smoking decreased from 24.1 percent to 19.1 percent of adults in the last ten years, 830,000 adults still smoke in Wisconsin.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 20.0 percent to 26.9 percent of adults, with nearly 1.2 million obese adults in the state.

Health Disparities:

In Wisconsin, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 45.8 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 26.5 percent and Hispanics at 21.1 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 12.4 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.4 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

State Health Department Web Site: www.dhs.wisconsin.gov