Health & Fitness

Rhode Island Near Top In America's Health Rankings

The United Health Foundation has released its annual America's Health Rankings. Find out why Rhode Island fared well.

Rhode Island is one of the nation's healthier states, according to the United Health Foundation.
Rhode Island is one of the nation's healthier states, according to the United Health Foundation. (Shutterstock)

PROVIDENCE — The United Health Foundation recently released the 2019 edition of its America’s Health Rankings Annual Report, which represents the longest-running state-by-state analysis of the nation’s health. The foundation had good news for Rhode Island, which finished 13th-best among the 50 states.

The Rhode Island rankings in the five categories that factored into the overall ranking were:

  • Behaviors (including measures for drug deaths, drinking and obesity): 17th
  • Community & Environment (including pollution, diseases and occupational hazards): 21st
  • Policy (including immunization laws and public health funding): 2nd
  • Clinical Care (including numbers of primary care physicians, dentists and mental health providers): 11th
  • Health Outcomes (including deaths from cancer and heart disease) : 27th

The overall ranking for Rhode Island was one rung higher than the 2018 report. Additionally, the state has seen noticeable improvement in the overall ranking over the past 30 years.

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  • 2010 Ranking: 10th
  • 2000 Ranking: 18th
  • 1990 Ranking: 18th

Among the highlights for Rhode Island, good and bad, were the following statistics:

  • In the past three years, drug deaths increased, from 21.4 to 29.7 deaths per 100,000 population
  • In the past five years, high school graduation rates increased, from 77.0 percent to 84.1 percent of students
  • In the past 15 years, air pollution decreased 35 percent, from 11.3 to 7.3 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter
  • In the past 10 years, chlamydia increased 66 percent, from 300.3 to 498.5 cases per
  • 100,000 population
  • Since its peak in 1993, violent crime decreased 53 percent, from 462 to 219 offenses per 100,000 population
  • 11121214455666In the past year, frequent mental distress decreased from 14.6 percent to 12.3 percent of adults, after increasing each year since 2015

Here are some other highlights from the national report:

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Vermont ranked as the healthiest state in America for 2019, the researchers found, followed by Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut and Utah.

At the other end of the rankings, Mississippi was the lowest-ranked state in the nation. The bottom five was rounded out by Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma.

The report ranked all 50 states across 35 measures of health, such as e-cigarette use, housing problems and concentrated disadvantage.

The America’s Health Rankings Annual Report used 19 data sources to determine the most accurate information for each state, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavior Risk Surveillance System and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and Current Population Survey.

“The report provides a unique opportunity to track short- and long-term public health successes as well as identify current and emerging challenges at state and national levels,” authors of the United Health Foundation wrote. “When reading the report, think beyond the rankings; every state, whether first or last, has strengths and challenges.”

The full report is available on Americashealthrankings.org.


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