With around 75 percent of U.S. adults classified as either overweight or obese and to assess the data pattern, the non-profit organization SmileHub has released new reports on the Best Charities for Health & Wellness and the Best States for Health & Wellness in 2024.
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 ranged from the cost of a medical visit to the quality of public hospital systems to public health funding per capita.
This led to a series of rankings being produced.
In terms of the best states for having more residents with a healthy weight, the data showed:
- Massachusetts
- Colorado
- Vermont
- California
- New Hampshire
- Utah
- Rhode Island
- Maryland
- Pennsylvania
- New York
In contrast, the least healthy states (that is those with the highest proportions of overweight people) are:
- Minnesota
- Montana
- Connecticut
- Maine
- Washington
- Nebraska
- Hawaii
- South Dakota
- Illinois
- Michigan
As with any geographical data review there are ranges and patterns of interest. In terms of obesity, Colorado has the lowest obesity rate: 1.7 times lower than in West Virginia, which has the highest rate.
One reason why some people suffer ill-health is accessibility to medical services, either due to provision or economics. With the latter, the cost of a medical visit is lowest in Missouri and this state is 2.2 times lower than in Alaska, where a medical visit costs the most.
Further with Alaska, the state has the most public health funding per capita. This is 3.6 times more than in Michigan and Wisconsin, which have the least funding. Therefore, the U.S. displays a relatively wide range of health inequality by geography.
