healthbycounty

Disability

Cognitive Disability by County — US Rankings

CDC PLACES 2023 · Age-adjusted prevalence · All 3,144 US counties

Cognitive disability in BRFSS is captured by a single question — whether the respondent has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition. PLACES age-adjusts the estimate to make counties with different age structures comparable. It is a broad question that covers everything from early dementia to long-COVID cognitive symptoms to ADHD; the survey does not separate them. The county pattern aligns more with the frequent-mental-distress and depression rankings than with age.

How this ranking is built

Source: CDC PLACES 2023 release. Methodology: BRFSS survey responses pooled across years, fitted with a small-area statistical model, age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. Confidence intervals (95%) are shown for each county — wider intervals indicate more uncertainty in the modeled estimate, typically driven by smaller populations.

Lowest Cognitive Disability Rates — Top 100 Counties

Counties with the lowest reported cognitive disability prevalence — these counties show the most favorable position on this measure.

#CountyRate
1Howard County9.5%
2Somerset County9.6%
3Falls Church city9.6%
4Los Alamos County9.7%
5Delaware County9.9%
6Morris County10.0%
7Nassau County10.0%
8Arlington County10.0%
9Bergen County10.1%
10Hunterdon County10.3%
11Forsyth County10.4%
12DuPage County10.5%
13Montgomery County10.5%
14Hamilton County10.7%
15Sarpy County10.7%
16New York County10.7%
17Santa Clara County10.8%
18Western Connecticut Planning Region10.8%
19Monmouth County10.8%
20Westchester County10.8%
21Loudoun County10.8%
22Teton County10.8%
23Putnam County10.9%
24Douglas County11.0%
25Fairfax County11.0%
26Ozaukee County11.0%
27Oconee County11.1%
28Dallas County11.1%
29Carver County11.1%
30Middlesex County11.1%
31King County11.1%
32Waukesha County11.1%
33San Mateo County11.2%
34Tompkins County11.2%
35Collin County11.2%
36Dane County11.2%
37Washington County11.3%
38Washington County11.4%
39Rockingham County11.4%
40Saratoga County11.4%
41Broomfield County11.5%
42Pitkin County11.5%
43Johnson County11.5%
44Frederick County11.5%
45San Francisco County11.6%
46District of Columbia11.6%
47Fayette County11.6%
48Kendall County11.6%
49Lake County11.6%
50Oakland County11.6%
51Kearney County11.6%
52Saunders County11.6%
53Cass County11.6%
54Warren County11.6%
55Dakota County11.7%
56Olmsted County11.7%
57Lancaster County11.7%
58Burlington County11.7%
59Sussex County11.7%
60Suffolk County11.7%
61Lincoln County11.7%
62Fort Bend County11.7%
63Fulton County11.8%
64Monroe County11.8%
65Nantucket County11.8%
66Scott County11.8%
67Cass County11.8%
68Thomas County11.8%
69Mercer County11.8%
70Burleigh County11.8%
71Newport County11.8%
72Alexandria city11.8%
73St. Johns County11.9%
74Cobb County11.9%
75Hamilton County11.9%
76Logan County11.9%
77Seward County11.9%
78Travis County11.9%
79Fairfax city11.9%
80Anne Arundel County12.0%
81Garfield County12.0%
82Loup County12.0%
83Wheeler County12.0%
84Wake County12.0%
85Union County12.0%
86Denton County12.0%
87Summit County12.0%
88Albemarle County12.0%
89Marin County12.1%
90Boone County12.1%
91Cedar County12.1%
92Albany County12.1%
93Bristol County12.1%
94Washington County12.1%
95Williamson County12.1%
96Chittenden County12.1%
97Aleutians West Census Area12.2%
98Hinsdale County12.2%
99San Miguel County12.2%
100Carroll County12.2%

Best 100 counties for Cognitive Disability.

Highest Cognitive Disability Rates — Bottom 100 CountiesCounties with the highest reported cognitive disability prevalence.
#CountyRate
1Oglala Lakota County27.1%
2East Carroll Parish26.4%
3Hancock County26.1%
4Todd County26.1%
5McDowell County25.7%
6Lake County25.5%
7Madison Parish25.3%
8Mingo County25.2%
9Kusilvak Census Area25.1%
10Claiborne Parish24.7%
11Pemiscot County24.5%
12Calhoun County24.1%
13Scott County24.1%
14Desha County24.1%
15Tensas Parish23.9%
16McKinley County23.8%
17Hickory County23.6%
18Dunklin County23.5%
19Bienville Parish23.5%
20Wyoming County23.4%
21Dimmit County23.4%
22Wayne County23.4%
23Ozark County23.4%
24Lafayette County23.4%
25Sioux County23.3%
26McDonald County23.3%
27Humphreys County23.3%
28Avoyelles Parish23.3%
29Webster County23.2%
30Bullock County23.2%
31Mellette County23.1%
32Franklin Parish23.1%
33Phillips County23.1%
34Lee County23.1%
35Lincoln County23.0%
36Clay County23.0%
37Zavala County23.0%
38Adair County23.0%
39Ripley County23.0%
40Mississippi County23.0%
41Red River Parish23.0%
42Concordia Parish23.0%
43Roane County22.9%
44Logan County22.9%
45Morehouse Parish22.9%
46Braxton County22.8%
47Pickett County22.8%
48Bledsoe County22.8%
49Corson County22.8%
50Wright County22.8%
51Oregon County22.8%
52Tunica County22.8%
53Quitman County22.8%
54Webster Parish22.8%
55Starr County22.7%
56Grundy County22.7%
57Holmes County22.7%
58Buffalo County22.6%
59Butler County22.6%
60Sharkey County22.6%
61Catahoula Parish22.6%
62Caldwell Parish22.6%
63Searcy County22.6%
64Greene County22.6%
65Cocke County22.5%
66Carter County22.5%
67St. Landry Parish22.5%
68Acadia Parish22.5%
69Zapata County22.4%
70Clay County22.4%
71New Madrid County22.4%
72Evangeline Parish22.4%
73Jackson County22.4%
74Perry County22.4%
75Summers County22.3%
76Perry County22.3%
77Washington County22.3%
78St. Helena Parish22.3%
79Woodruff County22.3%
80Ashley County22.3%
81Haywood County22.2%
82Decatur County22.2%
83Coal County22.2%
84Glacier County22.2%
85Morgan County22.2%
86Sevier County22.2%
87Jim Hogg County22.1%
88Ziebach County22.1%
89Jackson County22.1%
90Pushmataha County22.1%
91Okfuskee County22.1%
92Latimer County22.1%
93Texas County22.1%
94Reynolds County22.1%
95Howell County22.1%
96Yazoo County22.1%
97Issaquena County22.1%
98St. Francis County22.1%
99Wilcox County22.1%
100Sequatchie County22.0%

Worst 100 counties for Cognitive Disability.

What this ranking suggests

Cognitive disability is one of the newer disability surfaces in PLACES and tends to surprise local public-health staff with how high prevalence is. The measure pairs naturally with the DEPRESSION and MHLTH rankings — the three together describe much of a county's brain-health burden.

Methodology notes & limitations

Estimates are statistical model outputs, not direct measurements. Small counties have wider confidence intervals; treat narrow rank differences in those rows as within-noise. Counties where the underlying population is too small to support modeling are suppressed entirely (about 1% of US counties). All measures are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. The PLACES dataset uses BRFSS self-reported data — self-report introduces known direction-of-bias in some measures (BMI is under-reported; binge drinking is under-reported), but the bias is roughly uniform across counties so ranking comparability is preserved. See the methodology page for full data-pipeline documentation.

By Logan Johnson, Founder & Data EditorPublished Reviewed by Logan Johnson, Founder & Data Editor

Data source: CDC PLACES 2023 release. Measure ID: COGNITION.

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