11 Texas Communities Among Healthiest In U.S.

Eleven Texas communities ranked among the healthiest in the United States, according to rankings released by U.S. News & World Report on Monday. The rankings, compiled in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation, present a list of the 500 healthiest American communities.

U.S. News evaluated 3,000 communities across 10 categories to determine the rankings. In addition to the overall rankings, U.S. News also ranked communities across four groups: urban high-performing, urban up-and-coming, rural high-performing and rural up-and-coming. Texas communities also ranked in these categories.

“Research has shown that in the United States, your ZIP code is a greater predictor of your life expectancy than your genetic code,” Mark T. Bertolini, chairman of the Aetna Foundation and chairman and CEO of Aetna, said in a press release. “In other words, where you live has a significant impact on your overall health.”

Here’s the Texas communities that ranked among the 500 healthiest in the U.S.:

• Collin County (68)
• Williamson County (105)
• Fort Bend County (143)
• Kendall County (166)
• Carson County (217)
• Denton County (225)
• Rockwall County (229)
• Blanco County (302)
• Travis County (311)
• Kinney County (410)
• Gillespie (412)

Here are the Texas communities that were ranked in the rural high-performing category:

• Carson County (58)
• Blanco County (85)

Here is the Texas community that ranked in the rural up-and-coming category:

• Real County (16)

Here are the Texas communities that were ranked in the urban high-performing category:

• Collin County (53)
• Williamson County (79)

Here is the Texas community that ranked in the urban up-and-coming category:

• Kerr County (56)

The top 10 healthiest communities in the U.S. are:

1. Falls Church City, Virginia
2. Douglas County, Colorado
3. Broomfield County, Colorado
4. Los Alamos County, New Mexico
5. Dukes County, Massachusetts
6. Fairfax City, Virginia
7. Hamilton County, Indiana
8. Routt County, Colorado
9. Ouray County, Colorado
10. Loudoun County, Virginia

The rankings were compiled by evaluating how communities performed across 80 metrics in 10 categories: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure. U.S. News collaborated with the University of Missouri Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES) to collect and analyze data. The data was collected from government and private sources. (Read the full methodology here)

You can see the full rankings here.

Image via Shutterstock