How healthy are Georgians? Here's how the state ranks nationally

Georgia ranks among the least healthy states in the nation, according to a new report. The rankings, released by the United Health Foundation, put Georgia at No. 40 for overall healthiest states.

The foundation has been putting out its "America's Health Rankings Annual Report" for 30 years. It looks at factors like behaviors, community and environment, policy, clinical care and health outcomes.

However, the report does note some things Georgia is doing well. Those include: low prevalence of binge drinking and low death drug rate.

In recent years, there have been other strides made as well: The high state's high school graduation rate has been rising, smoking levels have been decreased and the state's number of mental health care providers rose 12% in the last two years.

In this year's rankings, Vermont took home the top spot for healthiest state overall. It was followed in the top spots by Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut, Utah, New Hampshire, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington and Colorado.

Mississippi was the least healthy state in the nation. It's joined in the bottom 10 by several other Southern states, including South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The report notes that Mississippi's drop from No. 49 to 50th overall is due to changes in the policy and behavior categories.

Here are some national trends in health, according to the report:

Successes:

• The percentage of children in poverty continues to decline
• Smoking among adults has decreased 45% since 1990.
• Air pollution has decreased 36% since 2003

Challenges:

• Suicide rates continue to increase
• Obesity rates among adults has increased 166% since 1990
• Low birth weights remain a challenge

This article was written by Courtney Kueppers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cox Media Group