The County Health Rankings show us that where we live matters to our health. The health of a community depends on many different factors - ranging from health behaviors, education and jobs, to quality of health care, to the environment.

How can we use the County Health Rankings to measure progress over time?

The County Health Rankings are not necessarily the best way to track improvement over time because they are based on broad measures and, in order to be valid for counties of all sizes, many of the measures are based on multiple years of data. We encourage counties to use their own local data sources to identify ways to measure progress from year to year.