The Rankings

Wyoming

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Strengths:

• Low incidence of infectious disease
• Low percentage of children in poverty
• Low levels of air pollution
• Low violent crime rate

Challenges:

• Limited availability of primary care physicians
• High occupational fatalities rate

Highlights:

• In the past year, the violent crime rate decreased from 228 to 196 offenses per 100,000 population.
• In the past year, geographic disparity within the state increased from 9.3 percent to 11.1 percent.
• In the past five years, the rate of uninsured population increased from 13.8 percent to 16.3 percent.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 18.0 percent to 25.7 percent of adults, with 110,000 obese adults in the state.
• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 5.0 percent to 7.2 percent of adults. Now 31,000 Wyoming adults have diabetes.
• While smoking decreased from 23.8 percent to 19.5 percent of adults in the last ten years, 84,000 adults still smoke in Wyoming.

Health Disparities:

In Wyoming, smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic American Indians at 49.1 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 18.5 percent and Hispanics at 24.5 percent. Similarly, obesity is highest among non-Hispanic American Indians at 42.4 percent when compared to non-Hispanic whites at 24.6 percent and Hispanics at 32.0 percent.

State Health Department Web Site: http://www.health.wyo.gov