It must be all the lutefisk, lefse and bouja. The United Health Foundation released it's ranking of Healthiest States in the US, yesterday and the Gopher State squeaked into the Top 5. That's better than last year, where we ranked 6th.

Despite what we may feel, we're not even the fattest state in the nation. We're ranked 15th overall on the obesity scale, but ironically we're third when it comes to Diabetes.According to the page dedicated to Minnesota:

Minnesota’s sedentary lifestyle and diabetes rates are among the lowest in the U.S. However, 891,000 adults live a sedentary lifestyle and almost 300,000 adults have diabetes in the state.

Some of the the strengths the foundation sees in our state include:

  • Low rates of premature death and deaths from cardiovascular disease
  • Low prevalences of sedentary lifestyle & diabetes
  • High rate of high school graduation

One of our weaknesses isn't a surprise; apparently we have a high prevalence of binge drinking.

We've also cut our public health funding, the report says our average per person public health spending has gone from $62 per individual to $43. There's also an increase in the maount of children under 18 below the poverty line; from 8.1 percent to 13.3 percent In the past ten years.

The Top 10

    • 1. Vermont
    • 2. Hawaii
    • 3. New Hampshire
    • 4. Massachusetts
    • 5. Minnesota
    • 6. Connecticut
    • 7. Utah
    • 8. New Jersey
    • 9. Maine
    • 10. Rhode Island

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