Minnesota Tops America's Health Rankings^TM

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The 2005 edition of America's Health Rankings^TM, published by United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association (APHA), reports that Minnesota is the healthiest U.S. state for the third consecutive year. Minnesota has ranked either first or second in each of the report's 16 years.

Significant Minnesota notes:

• The percentage of children in poverty decreased from 9.7 percent to 9.0 percent in the past year; the percentage was 21.2 in 1990, the first year of the rankings

• Since 1990, the infant mortality rate declined from 8.9 to 4.8 deaths per 1,000 live births

• Since 1990, the prevalence of smoking declined from 28.7 percent to 20.7 percent

• The state has the lowest rate of cardiovascular death, rate of premature death and percent of persons without health insurance

• The state's lowest rankings were for adequacy of prenatal care (27th), prevalence of smoking (24th) and prevalence of obesity (21st)

This year's report shows that the health of the American population has improved 18.4 percent since 1990, but the rate of improvement has slowed dramatically due to a combination of personal, community and public health factors. "Our nation's slowing rate of improvement should be of concern to us all," said William McGuire, M.D., chairman of the foundation's board of directors. "Failure to address this trend, and especially to decrease the risk factors that are associated with premature death and disease, will result in preventable misery and unnecessary death in the years to come."

America's Health Rankings is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional, yearly analysis of the relative healthiness of the American population. To produce a composite assessment of each state's health, the report utilizes 18 traditional and nontraditional measures such as prevalence of smoking, high school graduation rates, infant mortality rates, per capita public health spending and immunization coverage.

The rankings focus special attention on the key risk factors that are associated with healthy life expectancy and preventable disease, such as the prevalence of obesity, the prevalence of smoking and the adequacy of prenatal care. The report shows that 28 countries have healthy life expectancies greater than that of the United States.

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