Big Stone County 1 of 36 on US News community health honor roll

Ortonville, MN — The 2018 U.S. News Healthiest Communities Honor Roll recently recognized Big Stone County as one of 36 communities on their first ever health honor roll.

The honor roll is a component of U.S. News & World Report‘s inaugural healthiest communities rankings, a project conducted in collaboration with Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna’s charitable foundation. The project scores nearly 3,000 counties on approximately 80 indicators across 10 categories: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure. Researchers then identified the top 500 healthiest communities.

“At Ortonville Area Health Services (OAHS), we’re proud of our community and to play a key roll in the health of people in our area,” Dave Rogers, CEO of OAHS.

As part of the project, each county was placed into a peer groups based on urban-rural status and economic performance, according to U.S. News & World Report. The groups are urban, high-performing rankings; urban, up-and-coming rankings; rural, high-performing rankings; and rural, up-and-coming rankings.

The honor roll comprises the top-performing communities within each peer group in these specific geographic divisions: East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, Mountain, New England, Pacific, South Atlantic, West North Central and West South Central.

The communities named to the honor roll “best serve their residents in the face of often complex health-related challenges,” according to U.S. News & World Report. Populations in honor roll communities range from 2,000 people to nearly 1 million. According to U.S. News & World Report, the honor roll communities together have an average life expectancy of 81 years and health insurance coverage exceeding 90 percent.

Here are the 36 honor roll communities.