healthbycounty

Disability

Mobility Disability by County — US Rankings

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

Mobility disability is captured by a single BRFSS question on serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs. PLACES age-adjusts the estimate. After age adjustment, the county pattern tracks decades of occupational injury, obesity prevalence, arthritis prevalence, and access to physical therapy. The highest-prevalence counties cluster in central Appalachia and the rural South — the same geography that shows up across most chronic-disease rankings, which is not coincidence.

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 Mobility Disability Rates — Top 100 Counties

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

#CountyRate
1Los Alamos County7.0%
2Douglas County7.1%
3King County7.2%
4Morris County7.4%
5Falls Church city7.4%
6Broomfield County7.5%
7Pitkin County7.5%
8Hinsdale County7.6%
9Hunterdon County7.6%
10Delaware County7.6%
11Somerset County7.7%
12Chittenden County7.8%
13Ouray County7.9%
14Howard County7.9%
15Monmouth County7.9%
16Teton County7.9%
17Boulder County8.0%
18Carver County8.0%
19Summit County8.0%
20Hamilton County8.1%
21Nantucket County8.1%
22Washington County8.1%
23Rockingham County8.1%
24Washington County8.1%
25Arlington County8.1%
26Clear Creek County8.2%
27Western Connecticut Planning Region8.2%
28Bergen County8.2%
29Bristol County8.2%
30Jefferson County8.3%
31Forsyth County8.3%
32Oconee County8.3%
33Montgomery County8.3%
34Sussex County8.3%
35Addison County8.3%
36Washington County8.3%
37Windsor County8.3%
38Routt County8.4%
39San Miguel County8.4%
40Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region8.4%
41Dallas County8.4%
42Grand Isle County8.4%
43Norfolk County8.5%
44Gallatin County8.5%
45Lincoln County8.5%
46Loudoun County8.5%
47Gunnison County8.6%
48Summit County8.6%
49Middlesex County8.6%
50Newport County8.6%
51Elbert County8.7%
52Johnson County8.7%
53Frederick County8.7%
54Livingston County8.7%
55Morgan County8.7%
56Park County8.8%
57Cumberland County8.8%
58Oakland County8.8%
59Putnam County8.8%
60Saratoga County8.8%
61Warren County8.8%
62Fairfax County8.8%
63Ozaukee County8.8%
64Hennepin County8.9%
65Carroll County8.9%
66Nassau County8.9%
67San Juan County8.9%
68Eagle County9.0%
69Gilpin County9.0%
70Larimer County9.0%
71Mineral County9.0%
72Teller County9.0%
73Dukes County9.0%
74Scott County9.0%
75Burlington County9.0%
76Cass County9.0%
77Williamson County9.0%
78Wasatch County9.0%
79DuPage County9.1%
80Monroe County9.1%
81Barnstable County9.1%
82Leelanau County9.1%
83Sarpy County9.1%
84Union County9.1%
85Lamoille County9.1%
86Waukesha County9.1%
87Arapahoe County9.2%
88Grand County9.2%
89Lake County9.2%
90San Juan County9.2%
91Northwest Hills Planning Region9.2%
92Washtenaw County9.2%
93Dodge County9.2%
94Wright County9.2%
95Grafton County9.2%
96Union County9.2%
97Marin County9.3%
98Santa Clara County9.3%
99St. Johns County9.3%
100Warren County9.3%

Best 100 counties for Mobility Disability.

Highest Mobility Disability Rates — Bottom 100 CountiesCounties with the highest reported mobility disability prevalence.
#CountyRate
1Oglala Lakota County28.8%
2Todd County27.2%
3East Carroll Parish26.3%
4Humphreys County25.4%
5Dimmit County25.2%
6Kusilvak Census Area25.1%
7Bullock County25.1%
8Greene County25.0%
9Zavala County24.8%
10Holmes County24.7%
11Tunica County24.5%
12Madison Parish24.5%
13Sioux County24.4%
14Quitman County24.4%
15Sharkey County24.2%
16Starr County24.1%
17Perry County24.1%
18Coahoma County23.6%
19Zapata County23.5%
20Jim Hogg County23.5%
21Jefferson County23.5%
22Claiborne Parish23.4%
23Claiborne County23.3%
24Lowndes County23.1%
25Lake County23.0%
26Leflore County23.0%
27Wilcox County22.9%
28Phillips County22.8%
29Desha County22.8%
30Yazoo County22.5%
31Noxubee County22.5%
32Tensas Parish22.5%
33Sunflower County22.4%
34Hancock County22.3%
35Issaquena County22.2%
36McDowell County22.0%
37Randolph County22.0%
38Mellette County21.9%
39McKinley County21.9%
40Washington County21.9%
41Lee County21.9%
42Corson County21.8%
43Willacy County21.7%
44Bolivar County21.7%
45Bienville Parish21.7%
46Buffalo County21.6%
47Ziebach County21.3%
48Adair County21.3%
49Wilkinson County21.2%
50Cochran County21.1%
51Pemiscot County21.1%
52Morehouse Parish21.1%
53Macon County21.1%
54Mingo County21.0%
55St. Francis County21.0%
56Dallas County21.0%
57Tallahatchie County20.9%
58Concordia Parish20.9%
59Bethel Census Area20.9%
60Adams County20.8%
61Lafayette County20.8%
62Brooks County20.7%
63Haywood County20.7%
64Robeson County20.7%
65Hancock County20.7%
66Jackson County20.6%
67Dillon County20.6%
68Okfuskee County20.6%
69Jefferson Davis County20.6%
70Conecuh County20.6%
71Marlboro County20.5%
72Telfair County20.5%
73Sumter County20.5%
74Marion County20.4%
75Glacier County20.4%
76Webster Parish20.4%
77Red River Parish20.4%
78Chicot County20.4%
79Bennett County20.3%
80St. Landry Parish20.3%
81St. Helena Parish20.3%
82Presidio County20.2%
83Allendale County20.2%
84Scott County20.2%
85Chickasaw County20.2%
86Franklin Parish20.2%
87Stewart County20.2%
88Atkinson County20.2%
89Hudspeth County20.1%
90Panola County20.1%
91Terrell County20.1%
92San Augustine County20.0%
93Maverick County20.0%
94Pushmataha County20.0%
95Mississippi County20.0%
96Pike County20.0%
97Barbour County20.0%
98Seminole County19.9%
99Latimer County19.9%
100Coal County19.9%

Worst 100 counties for Mobility Disability.

What this ranking suggests

Mobility is the most concrete of the disability measures: it is what residents experience getting through a day. Read it alongside the ARTHRITIS ranking (a major upstream driver) and the LPA (physical inactivity) ranking (a major downstream consequence).

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: MOBILITY.

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