For the fourth year in a row, Winneshiek County is Iowa's healthiest county

Iowa State University Extension has released its latest county health profile reports.  For the fourth year in a row, Winneshiek County is ranked first out of all 99 Iowa counties in terms of healthy living factors.

ISU Extension looked at a variety of statistics to come up with the overall ranking.  The obesity rate in Winneshiek County was lower (29.1 percent) than the statewide average (31.8 percent).  The number of people rated as being in "poor health" was lower in Winneshiek County (10.4 percent) than it was statewide (13.1 percent).  Winneshiek County's population of smokers was lower (12.9 percent) than the statewide average (16.7 percent).

The only indicator in which Winneshiek County was slightly worse than the statewide average was the percentage of the population drinking excessively--22.6 percent in the county, compared to 22.1 percent statewide.

All 99 county reports are available at: http://indicators.extension.iastate.edu/county-health-data-decision-makers.  The Winneshiek County report is linked below.