Teton County residents are expected to live longer than most of the people in the United States, according to a recent analysis.
Last week, U.S. News and World Report released its ranking of America’s 25 healthiest communities and Teton County made the cut at number 16.
Teton County’s overall life expectancy is 83.5 years, compared to the national median at 77.9 years.
Teton County (population: 21,294) received an overall score of 81.8 out of a possible 100 in the report and was considered No. 1 when it came to infrastructure, population health and the environment. When compared to other rural, high-performing communities, Teton County came in at fifth place.
The county actually dropped in its score over the last year, as it was ranked the sixth overall healthiest community in 2019.
Its lower ranking likely stemmed from the county’s poorer scores when it came to equity (43), housing (47) and public safety (58). The county also ranked above average when it came to the population in the community without health insurance at 16%. compared to the nation’s median of 10.6%.
The highest ranking in the report went to Los Alamos County, New Mexico (population: 17,950), which received a score of 100. It was considered to perform the best when it came to population health, housing and the environment.
The lowest ranking of the 25 was Dallas County, Iowa (population: 66,135), which received a score of 79.1. The county was reported to perform best in the categories of infrastructure, economy and population health.
The news organization studied nearly 3,000 counties and county equivalents, measuring 84 factors that form and define the health of a community and its residents. It then narrowed that list down to 10 categories, ranging from the economy to public safety to housing.
The communities are scored on a 100-point scale based on their performance relative to one another across metrics and categories and are ranked based on those scores.
These 25 communities were narrowed down from the U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of the 500 healthiest communities.
