American Association for Health Education

RWJF and University of Wisconsin to Launch the First State-by-State County Health Rankings

February 17, 2010 – Washington, D.C.

February marks the release of the County Health Rankings, a first-of-its-kind collection of 50 reports – one per state – that ranks all counties within each state on their overall health. A collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the Rankings show how counties measure up within each state in terms of how healthy people are, how long they live, and how important factors affect their health, such as tobacco use, obesity, access to healthcare, education, community safety, and air quality. The County Health Rankings is a new standard for public health and community leaders to use in identifying gaps and developing solutions to improve the health of their communities. This is the first release of what will be an annual snapshot of county-by-county health within each state. More information at: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/