DuPage County has Illinois' best conditions for health, while far southern Alexander County has the worst, according to a new analysis by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Why it matters: These health factors — including tobacco use, diet & exercise, access to care, education, housing and air quality — can drive health outcomes.
- Case in point: DuPage also ranks No. 1 for longer and better quality of life.
Overall, Illinois' health factors hew pretty close to the national average, but we do slightly better on factors including:
- Healthy food environments
- Access to exercise opportunities
- Premature death rates
- Adult smoking rates
- Supply of mental health providers
- Youth poverty rates
Illinois does a little worse than the national average on:
- Supply of doctors and dentists
- Alcohol-impaired driving deaths
- Sexually transmitted infection rates
- People with health insurance
- Preventable hospital stays
- Violent crime rates
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