10 HEALTHIEST STATES IN THE U.S.

The health of a population can be tied to numerous factors, ranging from clear causes like a lack of access to health care to less obvious ones like limited options for reliable transportation or high levels of housing insecurity.

When assessing states on their performance in public health for the 2024 Best States Rankings, U.S. News analyzed them based on six key metrics: infant mortality rate, obesity rate, smoking rate, suicide rate, overall mortality rate and the share of adults reporting poor mental health.

States with lower values in each of the measures ranked higher relative to states with higher values. Their performance determined the public health rankings, which informed the best states for health care rankings and the overall Best States rankings.

These Are the 10 States With the Healthiest Populations

States representing each coast performed particularly well in public health, as did four states in New England. California and Colorado were the only western states in the contiguous U.S. to make the top 10.

Variations exist among the top 10 states for public health when it comes to the individual metrics on which they’re rated. Smoking rates, for example, ranged from a low of 9.8% in No. 8 Maryland to a high of 13.4% in Vermont, at No. 10.

At the same time, Vermont had the lowest rate of infant mortality, at 3.16 deaths per 1,000 live births, edging out Massachusetts, the No. 1 state for public health overall.

Because equal weights were assigned to each metric within the public health subcategory, the public health rankings are based on states’ cumulative performance across all six metrics.

Here’s how states performed on each metric in the public health subcategory of the Best States rankings.

State	Infant Mortality Rate (per 1k live births)	Mortality Rate (per 100k)	Obesity Rate	Smoking Rate	Suicide Rate	Adults in Poor Mental Health
Massachusetts	3.23	693.46	26.8%	10.5%	8.27	15.4%
New Jersey	3.57	683.61	28.8%	10.6%	7.65	14.2%
Hawaii	4.67	615.88	26.9%	10.5%	16.78	12.2%
California	4.07	686	28.1%	9.9%	10.42	14.7%
New York	4.16	664.5	30%	11.4%	8.5	15.9%
Connecticut	4.65	716.8	30.4%	10.1%	10.55	15.6%
Rhode Island	4.3	713.96	30.8%	11.9%	10.51	16.4%
Maryland	5.99	746.52	33.3%	9.8%	9.46	15.2%
Colorado	4.99	736.35	24.9%	10.8%	21.04	16.4%
Vermont	3.16	757.62	26.4%	13.4%	17.92	17.8%

Didn't see your state in the public health rankings? Check out the overall Best States rankings, and see how your state stacks up against others in areas like health care, infrastructure, crime and corrections and natural environment.

2024-05-07T04:14:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd