County Rankings
Where America Stands on Chronic Disease, Behavioral Health, and Prevention
Forty county-level health rankings drawn from the CDC PLACES program — the most comprehensive county-level health-statistics dataset published by the federal government.
Each ranking is built from the CDC PLACES dataset, a federal program that models age-adjusted prevalence for chronic-disease, behavioral, prevention, disability, and social-driver measures down to the county level. The underlying responses come from the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) — telephone interviews that the CDC pools, weights, and statistically models to produce county estimates.
These rankings are useful for comparing your county to others, spotting regional patterns, and giving local officials a defensible national benchmark. They are not useful for diagnosing individuals, projecting year-over-year trends without epidemiological context, or replacing direct disease-registry data. Confidence intervals are wider for small counties — read those rankings as broad pattern rather than precise position.
All measures are age-adjusted to the 2000 US population, so a retirement-heavy county is not confounded with a college town on raw demographics. Counties whose population is too small to support modeled estimates are excluded from individual rankings (about 1% of US counties). The data year is 2023.
Health Outcomes
Diagnosis-anchored chronic-disease prevalence. These measures count adults ever told they have the condition — they reflect both true burden and clinical access.
Arthritis
Adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis.
High Blood Pressure
Adults diagnosed with high blood pressure.
Cancer (non-skin) or Melanoma
Adults who have ever been told they had cancer (non-skin).
Current Asthma
Adults currently living with asthma.
Coronary Heart Disease
Adults ever diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
COPD
Adults with emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
Depression
Adults with a depressive-disorder diagnosis.
Diabetes
Adults diagnosed with diabetes.
High Cholesterol
Adults diagnosed with high cholesterol.
Obesity
Adults with BMI ≥ 30.
Stroke
Adults who have ever had a stroke.
All Teeth Lost (adults 65+)
Adults 65+ who have lost all their natural teeth.
Health Risk Behaviors
Behavioral indicators self-reported in BRFSS. Leading-edge of chronic disease — today's smoking and inactivity rankings track tomorrow's COPD and diabetes maps.
Health Status
Subjective self-rated measures that predict mortality and utilization independent of diagnosed disease. The closest thing to a "how things are going" indicator.
Prevention
Clinical preventive-service uptake — screening, checkups, medication adherence. The upstream gate for every chronic-disease outcome on this site.
Lack of Health Insurance (18-64)
Working-age adults without health insurance.
Taking Medication for High Blood Pressure
Adults with hypertension who are taking medication.
Annual Routine Checkup
Adults with a routine checkup in the past year.
Cholesterol Screening
Adults with a recent cholesterol screening.
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Adults 45-75 current with colorectal screening.
Dental Visit in Past Year
Adults with a dental visit in the past year.
Mammography (women 50-74)
Women 50-74 current with mammography screening.
Disability
Functional-limitation measures from the six standard BRFSS disability questions. Most useful for community-based services and home-care planning.
Cognitive Disability
Adults with serious cognitive difficulty.
Any Disability
Adults reporting any disability.
Hearing Disability
Adults with serious hearing difficulty.
Independent Living Disability
Adults with difficulty doing errands alone.
Mobility Disability
Adults with serious difficulty walking.
Self-care Disability
Adults with difficulty dressing or bathing.
Vision Disability
Adults with serious vision difficulty.
Health-Related Social Needs
Social-driver measures — food, housing, transportation, social support. Upstream of nearly every clinical outcome and a recent addition to the BRFSS core.
Lack of Social / Emotional Support
Adults lacking adequate social/emotional support.
Food Insecurity
Adults reporting food insecurity.
Receiving Food Stamps / SNAP
Adults receiving SNAP / food stamps.
Housing Insecurity
Adults reporting housing insecurity.
Transportation Barriers
Adults lacking reliable transportation.
Loneliness
Adults reporting they often feel lonely.
Utility Services Threat / Shutoff
Adults facing utility-service shutoffs.
Data: CDC PLACES 2023 release. Methodology and source documentation on the methodology page.