Clark County among healthiest counties in state
Clark County residents are among the healthiest in the state when it comes to health outcomes, according to new rankings.
The annual County Health Rankings compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation were released this week.
Clark County came in at No. 9 on the health outcomes ranking, which looks at residents’ length of life and quality of life. In Clark County, 12 percent of people are in poor or fair health, according to the rankings.
The No. 9 ranking is an increase over last year, when Clark County was 14th healthiest. Washington has 39 counties.
In the health factors category, Clark County dropped a few spots, coming in at No. 12. Health factors considered include smoking and obesity rates, teen births, physical inactivity, uninsured rates, access to providers, education level and air pollution.
In Clark County, 29 percent of adults are obese. While 18 percent of adults are physically inactive, 96 percent of residents have access to exercise opportunities (higher than the state rate of 88 percent), according to the rankings.
About 11 percent of local kids live in poverty and 26 percent of children live in single-parent households, according to the rankings report.
The No. 12 health factors rank matched Clark County’s position in last year’s rankings.
This year, San Juan, King and Snohomish counties took the top three spots in both health outcomes and health factors.
Skamania County ranked No. 22 and Cowlitz County ranked No. 29 in health outcomes in the 2018 rankings. In health factors, Skamania County ranked 21st and Cowlitz County ranked 30th.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.