Understanding community health with improved Compare Counties tool

Recent improvements to the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Compare Counties tool provide new ways to learn about a county’s health relative to other counties across the country.  

The tool provides a useful way to contextualize the health of a particular area and can be used to help set goals, identify strengths and areas for improvement. It also provides a view on how the county compares to similar locations in a given state, across the country or within similar rural or urban characteristics.

What’s New?

Every county has unique populations, layered histories and geographical features. Compare Counties is among the tools CHR&R has updated to reflect these nuances. The tool now includes a rurality feature. Users can view data about health outcomes and health factors in one county and compare data with other counties that have a similar population density and proximity to metropolitan areas. Public health and health care organizations, policymakers and community groups can use this information to develop goals.  

The opportunities and resources that create conditions for health often differ by place. Health and equity can vary according to local social and economic conditions, physical environment and health services. For example, people living in rural areas are more likely to make strong social ties — a key factor in well-being — but also have access to fewer facilities and providers.  

There are many definitions of rurality, and a county considered “rural” by one may be considered “not rural” by another. Community identities are complex, as is the question of how to group similar communities. Our update to the Compare Counties tool uses the Rural-Urban Continuum Code (RUCC) categories to sort counties along a rurality continuum. While many other classifications group counties as urban or not urban, the RUCC system provides nine levels of rurality and includes proximity to metropolitan areas and urban population size in the definitions.

As an example:

The RUCC places Plumas County in the most rural of its nine categories. There are no other California counties in this category. Using the Compare Counties tool shows that its physical environment is different from the rest of the state. However, when compared to counties with similar rurality across the country, Plumas County’s physical environment appears more alike.  

Visit the Compare Counties tool to discover how similar or different your county’s health outcomes and health factors are compared to other counties with similar characteristics: https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/compare-counties