Isn't the use of rankings to measure health questionable since the choice of measures and weights can make large differences in the ranks?

At best, rankings are only one indicator of a community’s health.  We provide the rationale for the decisions we’ve made about which measures and weights we use in our model. The main purpose of the Rankings is to serve as a tool to raise awareness about the many factors that influence health and an opportunity to engage more people in the discussion. They are also a tool to highlight that health varies from place to place. We strongly encourage communities to take a further look at local data and have further discussion about the meaning of these data to determine a plan of action for their community.