Wealthy counties are also healthier

But report says state’s binge drinking rate higher than average.

Colorado’s richest counties are also its healthiest, according to a new report that finds the state as a whole generally faring better on health than the national average.

The report, released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ranks Douglas County top in the state for length and quality of life and for factors that influence healthy living. Boulder and Broomfield counties, aswell as the ski- resort counties of Pitkin, Routt and Eagle, also score well.

The lowest- ranking counties in the report are also some of Colorado’s poorest: Crowley, Costilla, Huerfano and Saguache, all in southern Colorado.

“The County Health Rankings show us that where people live plays a key role in how long and how well they live,” Dr. Risa Lavizzo- Mourey, the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a statement accompanying the rankings’ release.

The rankings track with other reports that find Colorado healthier than the rest of the nation on average and also find that richer places are healthier places. Colorado’s ski resort counties, for instance, have the lowest cancer rates in the country.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation specifically incorporates economic circumstances into some of its rankings. The foundation ranks counties based on “health outcomes” — how long and well people live— and also based on “health factors” — such as a county’s air quality, diet, tobacco use and access to health care. The biggest weight in the health factors rankings, though, are given to social and economic measures like education, employment and income.

The foundation has produced the rankings for the past eight years, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The goal is to give community leaders a better understanding of how to create healthy environments.

This year’s national report highlights an increase in premature deaths among people 15 to 44 years old, largely driven by drug overdose deaths. The report estimated that premature deaths caused a loss of 7,700 years of potential life for every 100,000 people across the country. Colorado, though, fared better, seeing a loss of 5,700 years of potential life for every 100,000 people.

For measures of obesity, exercise, insurance rates, doctor- to- patient ratios, unemployment and pollution, Colorado generally ranked comparably to the national average or better.

The state fared poorly, though, in two areas. Colorado’s rate of binge drinking and its percentage of driving deaths involving alcohol were worse than the national average. And Colorado saw a rate of chlamydia infections 40 percent higher than the national average.