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America`s Health RankingsTM - 2009 Edition shows Vermont at the top of the list of healthiest states. The state has had a steady climb in the rankings for the last twelve years from a ranking of 17th in 1997 and 1998. Utah is ranked second this year, an improvement from ranking around 5th for the prior five years. Massachusetts is number three, followed by Hawaii and New Hampshire. Mississippi is 50th and the least healthy state, while Oklahoma is 49th. Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina complete the bottom five states.
Vermont moved from 20th in 1990 and 1991 to the top position with sustained improvement in the last twelve years. Vermont`s strengths include its number one position for all health determinants combined which includes ranking in the top ten states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low percent of children in poverty, high per capita public health funding, a low rate of uninsured population and ready availability of primary care physicians. Vermont`s two challenges are low immunization coverage with 74.4 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations and a high prevalence of binge drinking at 17.6 percent of the population.
Mississippi is 50th this year, the same as the last eight years. It has been in the bottom three states since the 1990 Edition. The state ranks well for a low prevalence of binge drinking and a low violent crime rate. It ranks in the bottom five states on 11 of the 22 measures including a high prevalence of obesity, a low high school graduation rate, a high percent of children in poverty, limited availability of primary care physicians 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. .
The score and ranking for each of the 50 states is listed below.
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 1.064 is slightly more than one standard deviation unit above the national norm. When comparing states from year to year, differences in score are more important than changes in ranking.
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