Ozaukee County makes list for healthiest communities in the United States

By: Stephanie Staudinger

Posted: Mar 26, 2018 4:44 PM CDT

File photo of students playing during recess at Tuckahoe Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, which ranked #1 in the 2018 survey of healthiest communities. SHAWN THEW / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

(CBS NEWS) Where are the healthiest places in the United States live? It turns out most are located in Virginia and Colorado, according to a new ranking from U.S. News and World Report.

Falls Church, Virginia, topped the list of healthiest communities across the country, followed by Douglas County, Colorado, and Broomfield County, Colorado. Seven of the top 10 counties were located in those two states.

The report, published on Monday, was done in collaboration with the Aetna Foundation.

To come up with the rankings, researchers scored nearly 3,000 communities across 80 metrics evaluating community health. These were broken down into several categories, including population health (which looked at access to care, health behaviors and outcomes, and mental health), education, housing, economy, infrastructure, food availability and nutrition, the environment, and public safety.

Falls Church nabbed the top spot with strong ratings in high-quality health care, housing, and public safety. The city, which was first settled more than 300 years ago and is now a prosperous suburb of Washington, D.C., is home to one of the strongest school systems and lowest poverty rates in the nation.

Colorado's Douglas and Broomfield counties, which are both part of the greater Denver metro area, also scored high in measures of economy, infrastructure, and overall population health. The life expectancy in Douglas County is nearly six years higher than the national average.

Below are the top 20 healthiest communities in the U.S., according to the new rankings:

1. Falls Church city, Virginia

2. Douglas County, Colorado

3. Broomfield County, Colorado

4. Los Alamos County, New Mexico

5. Dukes County, Massachusetts

6. Fairfax city, Virginia

7. Hamilton County, Indiana

8. Routt County, Colorado

9. Ouray County, Colorado

10. Loudoun County, Virginia

11. Ozaukee County, Wisconsin