How Manatee, Sarasota counties rank in U.S. News 2022 healthiest communities rankings
Manatee County ranked slightly above the Florida state average on the 2022 U.S. News Healthiest Communities report, which was released this week by U.S. News in collaboration with CVS Health.
But the Bradenton area, most of Florida and much of the South failed to make the list of 500 healthiest communities and were unranked nationally.
Manatee County received an overall score of 51, compared to the state average of 44. Sarasota County received an overall score of 62. Both counties were included in the urban, high-performing peer group and shared a score of 59 for that group.
St. Johns County (St. Augustine) and Seminole County (Sanford) were the only Florida counties ranked among the nation’s 500 healthiest. St. Johns received an overall score of 72, ranking 181st. Seminole received a score of 64.32 and was ranked 444th.
Los Alamos County, New Mexico, was ranked the healthiest county in the United States with an overall score of 100 and a Population Health score of 93.
Now in its fifth year, the Healthiest Communities rankings project evaluates 3,000 communities across 10 categories ranging from public health and education to infrastructure and economy.
The categories where the Bradenton area got its best scores were:
- infrastructure - 76
- economy - 65
- community vitality - 64
- population health - 57
- housing - 50.
The lowest-scoring Manatee County categories were:
- education - 43
- environment - 43
- equity - 44
- public safety - 44
- food and nutrition - 48.
Like Manatee County, Sarasota County achieved its highest score in infrastructure with an 81.
Other top scores for Sarasota included
- community vitality - 69
- population health a-66
- economy - 65
- public safety - 59.
- Education and food/nutrition - 56
- housing - 52.
Sarasota’s lowest scores were 44 for environment and 45 for equity.
Each of the top three counties in the 2022 rankings — Los Alamos County; Falls Church, Virginia; and Douglas County, Colorado – had previously been ranked No. 1.
The top 10 healthiest communities nationwide each scored above average in at least eight of the 10 primary categories assessing the social determinants of health.
What researchers considered
Communities with higher cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 (per 100,000 people) tended to have lower rates of post-secondary education, lower life expectancy and lower shares of adults who’ve recently engaged in leisure-time physical activity.
Communities with a higher level of education — as measured by the share of the population with an associate’s degree or higher — tended to have higher COVID-19 vaccination rates, as well as higher rates of booster shot receipt.
Population health was the single largest category in the survey with a weight of 14.2%. Factors considered were access to care, health behaviors, health conditions, health outcomes and mental health.
Researches delved deep into each of the categories. For instance, in ranking the environment, one of Manatee County’s lowest scoring categories, researchers considered water and air quality, extreme heat days per year, homes in flood hazard zones, exposure to toxic chemicals and more.
In ranking public safety, the study included the property crime rate, the violent crime rate, the accidental death rate, the vehicle crash fatality rate, the number of public safety professionals in the population, per capita spending on health and emergency services and the population living close to emergency facilities.
In ranking education, researchers evaluated educational achievement, including the percentage of fourth-grade students who performed at or above the “proficient” level on reading/language arts standardized tests, the high school graduation rate and the percentage of the population age 25 and older with an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, professional or doctorate degree.
Also evaluated was education infrastructure, including number of Head Start and Early Head Start programs within one-half mile of a county boundary per 100,000 population, and per-pupil expenditures.
The education category also considered the percentage of youths ages 5 to 17 living within 5 miles of a public elementary school, middle school or secondary school, continuing education tax credits as share of total tax filings, the percentage of youths ages 16 to 19 not enrolled in school and not working and the percentage of children ages 3 to 4 enrolled in preschool.
The shortage of affordable housing remains a persistent problem in much of the nation. Factors considered in the housing ratings included change in housing value, eviction rates, households spending at least 30% of income on housing, work hours needed to pay for affordable housing and more.
One recent study found that housing in the Bradenton-Sarasota area was among the least affordable in the United States.
Equity is a new category for the survey, measuring equity in education, health and income.
The framework of categories and subcategories was based on keys to evaluating community health identified by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics — a policy advisory board to the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — as part of its Measurement Framework for Community Health and Well-Being.
Scores for Manatee and Sarasota counties
▪ Overall - 51 Manatee, 62 Sarasota
▪ Population health - 57 Manatee, 66 Sarasota
▪ Equity - 44 Manatee, 45 Sarasota
▪ Education - 43 Manatee, 56 Sarasota
▪ Economy - 65 Manatee, 65 Sarasota
▪ Housing - 50 Manatee, 52 Sarasota
▪ Food & Nutrition - 48 Manatee, 56 Sarasota
▪ Environment - 43 Manatee, 44 Sarasota
▪ Public Safety - 44 Manatee, 59 Sarasota
▪ Community Vitality - 64 Manatee, 69 Sarasota
▪ Infrastructure - 76 Manatee, Sarasota 81
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
