| By Bob Weaver
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin researchers have ranked West Virginia's 55 counties related to the overall health status of citizens.
They used more than two dozen factors such as smoking, drinking, obesity, premature deaths, and other areas including education, access to health care and unemployment.
Of the 55 counties, Calhoun was rated at 31. Pleasants County County was ranked No. 1 and McDowell at 55th. None of the regional counties ranked in the bottom 15.
In the ratings, the county school system ranked high with high school graduation.
See countyhealthrankings.org
The statistical report on Calhoun renews earlier studies that indicate rampant problems with obesity, diabetes, and smoking, the studies linking to poor sociology-economic conditions, a high teen birth rate with 30% of county children living in poverty.
15 BEST COUNTIES
1. Pleasants (PL),
2. Monongalia (ML),
3. Pendleton (PE),
4. Doddridge (DO),
5. Jefferson (JE),
6. Hampshire (HA),
7. Upshur (UP),
8. Tucker (TU),
9. Berkeley (BE),
10. Ritchie (RI),
11. Ohio (OH),
12. Putnam (PU),
13. Marshall (MR),
14. Wirt (WI),
15. Hancock (HN).
15 WORST COUNTIES
40. Webster (WE),
41. Pocahontas (PO),
42. Cabell (CA),
43 Nicholas (NI)
44 Lewis (LE)
45 Raleigh (RA)
46 Summers (SU)
47 Fayette (FA)
48 Lincoln (LI)
49 Wayne (WA)
50 Mercer (ME)
51 Boone (BO)
52 Logan (LO)
53 Mingo (MN)
54 Wyoming (WY)
55 McDowell (MD) |
