Best States for Health & Wellness

The widespread prevalence of smoking, excessive alcohol use and overconsumption of fast food has contributed to a growing number of health issues in the U.S., such as cancers and heart disease. To combat these issues, people are encouraged to exercise, eat healthily and get regular check-ups with health professionals. However, some states are better than others at providing quality care and healthier lifestyle opportunities.

To highlight the states that are most supportive of residents improving their health and wellness and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 23 key metrics. The data set ranges from the cost of a medical visit to the quality of public hospital systems to public health funding per capita.

If you want to help improve health and wellness in your community but don’t know where to start, check out our picks for the Best Charities for Health & Wellness in 2024.

• Main Findings
• Methodology

Main Findings

Best States for Health & Wellness

Overall Rank*	State	Total Score	Community Health Baselines Rank	Healthcare Access Rank	Personal Health & Wellness Activity Rank
1	Massachusetts	65.45	1	1	22
2	Colorado	62.57	4	8	3
3	Vermont	62.37	11	2	6
4	California	58.72	3	24	15
5	New Hampshire	58.58	12	12	8
6	Utah	58.05	5	37	2
7	Rhode Island	57.86	7	5	36
8	Maryland	57.53	10	6	29
9	Pennsylvania	57.20	21	3	14
10	New York	55.86	6	13	30
11	Minnesota	55.81	16	14	11
12	Montana	54.78	35	10	1
13	Connecticut	54.76	9	18	25
14	Maine	54.10	30	7	7
15	Washington	53.80	8	41	5
16	Nebraska	53.49	19	4	37
17	Hawaii	53.40	2	48	18
18	South Dakota	51.77	31	16	9
19	Illinois	51.56	14	23	32
20	Michigan	51.35	20	25	19
21	Virginia	51.03	15	35	20
22	Wisconsin	50.87	32	21	12
23	Wyoming	50.61	34	19	10
24	Oregon	50.52	13	47	4
25	Delaware	50.12	17	22	31
26	New Mexico	49.88	24	15	27
27	New Jersey	47.96	18	34	39
28	North Dakota	47.70	29	20	33
29	Kansas	47.19	27	30	28
30	Idaho	47.08	23	44	13
31	Iowa	47.05	25	28	35
32	Ohio	46.73	39	17	24
33	Missouri	46.47	42	9	34
34	Arizona	45.96	22	45	16
35	Alaska	45.37	40	36	17
36	Indiana	44.80	33	31	40
37	Florida	42.98	28	46	21
38	North Carolina	42.41	36	42	26
39	Texas	41.62	41	40	23
40	South Carolina	41.05	37	39	42
41	Alabama	40.26	43	32	45
42	Kentucky	40.05	44	33	44
43	Louisiana	38.41	46	26	47
44	Nevada	38.38	26	49	43
45	Oklahoma	37.10	48	29	49
46	Georgia	36.39	38	50	38
47	Tennessee	35.95	45	43	41
48	West Virginia	35.76	50	11	46
49	Arkansas	35.61	47	38	48
50	Mississippi	32.57	49	27	50

Notes: *1 = Best

With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

Methodology

In order to identify the best states for health & wellness, SmileHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Community Health Baselines, 2) Health Care Access and 3) Personal Health & Wellness Activity.

We evaluated those dimensions using 23 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of health & wellness support. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for population differences across states.

We then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Community Health Baselines - Total Points: 35

• Share of Population Served by Community Water Systems with a Serious Drinking Water Violation: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

• Life Expectancy: Double Weight (~7.00 Points)

• Obesity Rate: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)
  Note: This metric measures the percent of adults aged 18 years and older who have obesity. Obesity is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a body mass index greater than or equal to 30.0.

• Cancer Incidence Rate: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

• Heart Disease Rate: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

• Heavy Alcohol Consumption Rate: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)
  Note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider heavy drinkers to be adult men having more than 14 drinks per week and adult women having more than 7 drinks per week.

• Current Smoker Rate: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

• Share of Insured Adults: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

• Share of Insured Children: Full Weight (~3.50 Points)

Health Care Access - Total Points: 50

• Health & Wellness Charities per Capita*: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Cost of Medical Visit: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Quality of Public Hospital System: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ ranking of public hospital systems.

• Hospital Beds per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Physicians per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Dentists per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Mental Health Counselors per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)

• Urgent Care Centers per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)
  Note: “Urgent Care Centers” include those certified by the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA).
  The UCAOA projects there currently are 6,900 urgent care centers in the United States. These centers offer care for non-life threatening conditions such as sprains, broken bones, flu colds, infections, cuts and others and typically are staffed by primary care physicians, PAs and NPs. Typically, urgent care centers are open seven days a week with evening and weekend hours and are part of the “convenient care” movement in which consumers select sites of service based in part on ease of access.
  

• Medicare Acceptance Rate among Physicians: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)
  Note: Among physicians who accept new patients, the percent of physicians who reported accepting payments from Medicare insurance.
  

• Medicaid Acceptance Rate among Physicians: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)
  Note: Among physicians who accept new patients, the percent of physicians who reported accepting payments from Medicaid insurance.
  

• Public Health Funding per Capita: Full Weight (~4.55 Points)
  Note: State dollars dedicated to public health per person (including federal grants directed to states from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources & Services Administration).
  

Personal Health & Wellness Activity - Total Points: 15

• Food Insecurity Rate: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

• Google Search Interest for "Healthy Eating": Full Weight (~5.00 Points)
  Note: This composed metric includes the search interest for the terms: “healthy food near me”, “healthy dinner ideas”, “healthy snacks”, “health food stores”, “healthy recipes”, “healthy grocery list”, "farmers markets near me".

• Share of Adults Reporting No Leisure-Time Physical Activity: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

 
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health Resources & Services Administration, State Health Access Data Assistance Center, Internal Revenue Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SmileHub, United Health Foundation, County Health Rankings, Roadmaps, The Council for Community and Economic Research, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kaiser Family Foundation, Urgent Care Association & Google Trends.