Background: Overview of the County Health Rankings Program

The County Health Rankings have been published annually since 2010, and measure the overall health of nearly all of the more than 3,000 counties in the nation. The Rankings use county-level measures from a variety of national and state data sources to measure the overall health outcomes (mortality and morbidity measures). In addition, the Rankings use about 25 other factors that affect the health of communities—including information about the quality of health care, health behaviors, social and economic factors, and measures of the environment. These measures are then combined into summary measures of health, and each county is ranked the healthiest to the least healthy in each state. The Rankings have stimulated considerable interest and discussion among the media, policy makers, and public health officials—about the reasons for differences in health and approaches that can be used to improve the health of communities.