Madison, Wisconsin — A new report says Sioux County is the healthiest county in Iowa, while Montgomery County, in the southwest, ranks last.
The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps report rates counties’ health outcomes nationwide based on a range of factors. Michael Stevenson, with the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute — which produces the report, says Iowa’s top-ranked counties all have the same things in common.
Stevenson says Iowa’s overall voter turnout is higher than the national average, but there’s a lot of variation in rates at the county level.
The report lists Iowa’s top five healthiest counties as: Sioux, Winneshiek, Dallas, Mitchell, and Hancock, while the bottom-ranked five are: Pottawattamie, Lee, Clarke, Appanoose, and last, Montgomery.
As for the other three counties in our primary coverage area, Lyon ranked ninth, O’Brien County is closer to the middle at 44th, and Osceola is further down the list at 72nd.
