America’s Healthiest Kids — Marin County, California

America’s healthiest kids reside in Marin County, CA, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Evaluation included multiple factors ranging from the number of infant deaths to birth weights. Overall, the evaluation was intended to distinguish communities that are child-friendly and safe.

America’s 50 Healthiest Counties for Kids, a new set of rankings by U.S. News, highlights counties that feature, among other child-friendly data, fewer infant deaths, fewer low-birth-weight babies, fewer deaths from injuries, fewer teen births and fewer children in poverty.

Experts say the analysis, released as part of U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals 2013-2014, represents the first national, county-level assessment of how health and environmental factors affect the well-being of children younger than 18. Perhaps the most striking finding is that what it takes to make a county healthy for kids can’t be reduced to one or two numbers. As shown in the table below, even the highest-ranking counties grapple with such challenges as large numbers of children in poverty and high teen birth rates. Top-ranked Marin County, a northern suburb of San Francisco, struggles with rates of teen births and children in poverty almost twice as high as 5th-ranked metro Milwaukee’s Ozaukee County. [Excerpted from article in U.S. News & World Report. For entire article click below.]

For the U.S. News & World Report article and rankings, click HERE.