How healthy is Fulton? New study ranks Ga.’s counties

Runners, walkers and bikers stop to see the skyline on Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. Fulton County was ranked one of Georgia’s top 25 healthiest counties.

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Runners, walkers and bikers stop to see the skyline on Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail. Fulton County was ranked one of Georgia’s top 25 healthiest counties.

Fulton County is one of Georgia’s top 25 healthiest counties, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Factors including length of life, quality of life and health behaviors like smoking and obesity were used to rank the health of Georgia’s 159 counties. Fulton comes in at No. 24.

Fulton performed highest in clinical care, health behaviors and length of life. Its clinical care, measured by factors such as how many under the age of 65 are without health insurance, was fourth-highest in the state, and its health behaviors ranked eighteenth.

Its length of life, measured by number of premature deaths, was twenty-third highest in the state.

While Fulton ranked comparatively high in some categories, it sank to 150 out of 159 for physical environment, with long commutes and driving alone to work contributing to its dismal score.

Forsyth County was found to be the healthiest overall, while Quitman County was the least healthy. Quitman, in southwestern Georgia on the border with Alabama, is also the state’s second-least populous county.

Read the full report for Fulton County and the statewide rankings here.