County-by-County Health Reports were released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on Wednesday.

Orange County is the healthiest county in the Tar Heel state, according to the newly-released data.

Andrea Ducas, Program Officer with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says there is more to the report than a ranking.

“What we really hope folks will do is, in addition to looking at where their counties rank, is really digging into the data,” she says, “to get a better sense of how where we live, where we work, and where we’re playing have to deal with how healthy we are.”

Ducas says Orange County is excelling in areas including premature deaths, adult smoking rate, and an increased rate of physical activity.

She adds having a healthy county extends far beyond immediate access to high-quality medical care.

“Individual health behaviors – whether folks in a community smoke, whether they have good access to diet and exercise opportunities,” Ducas says, “and also some social and economic factors like employment rates, graduation rates, what income looks like in a county, and physical environment conditions all go into a county’s rank.”

Dr. Colleen Bridger, Director of the Orange County Health Department, says they were not surprised to be ranked at the top of the scale for county-by-county health.

“The health of a community is essentially determined by two things,” she says. “One is how well educated the community is. And two is how wealthy the community is.

“Folks who follow Orange County statistics understand that, pretty typically, Orange County leads the state in both of those categories.”

While Orange County is well positioned, it also is an area that sees higher disparity between residents. And that can play a big role on the health of different segments of the community.

“One of the indicators in these rankings is what they call income inequality,” Bridger says. “Orange County’s income inequality was higher than average.

“Basically, what that means is we have a lot of people at the top of the income scale, and we have a lot of people at the bottom of the income scale.”

To battle income inequality, Bridger credits programs including the Family Success Alliance for helping children in low-income families succeed through high school and beyond.

Other obstacles that present themselves for Orange County include affordable housing – which Bridger says can lead to difficult decisions for residents. She adds she has been surprised binge drinking for adults was higher in our area when compared with national rates.

Bridger says there were plenty of highlights for Orange County to be proud of, including limited tobacco use.

“12 percent of our population uses tobacco, and that’s one of the best percentages in the entire nation,” she says.

She adds other areas where Orange County excels include teen birth rate and increased use and availability of healthcare services.

You can see the full rankings here.