State health officials say three adjoining central Indiana counties have topped a ranking of the state's healthiest counties for the second straight year.
Hamilton, Hendricks and Boone counties are ranked as the healthiest of Indiana's 92 counties in an annual statewide survey released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
That survey assesses health outcomes based on 29 factors that influence health, including smoking, high school graduation rates and physical inactivity.
State Health Commissioner William VanNess says the "rankings demonstrate that where you live matters."
He also says that health habits "start first in the home and are supported through neighborhoods, community coalitions, business, education and government."
Marion County came in 78th out of the state's 92 counties. Indiana's least healthiest county on the list is Scott County in southern Indiana.
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