Boulder County is the fourth-healthiest county in Colorado, according to a new annual report by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
The report used metrics such as life expectancy, mental wellness, physical health, air quality, health care access, substance abuse and other variables to determine the ranking.
Douglas, Pitkin and Eagle counties were ranked the top three in Colorado, respectively.
While Boulder County has a far lower premature death rate than the rest of Colorado, the county — and most counties in Denver’s metro area — have air pollution rates that are unsurprisingly twice as dense as the rest of the state, according to the report.
It also may not be surprising that Boulder County has a higher rate of income inequality than the rest of Colorado — 5.0 to 4.3, respectively. Between 2017 and 2021 in the county, “households with higher incomes had income 5.0 times that of households with lower incomes,” the report reads. Boulder County did however have a lower rate of child poverty, 9%, than the statewide rate of 12%. The child poverty rate across the country is 17%.
Between 2015 and 2019, 19% of Boulder County households reported at least one “severe housing problem … overcrowding, high housing costs, lack of kitchen facilities or lack of plumbing facilities,” according to the report. Across the state, 19% of residents reported at least one housing issue. Updated data for the housing metric was not available.
Under the ranking’s Health Factors category, Boulder County has comparatively low smoking, obesity and inactivity rates than the rest of Colorado and the U.S. The county does however have a slightly higher rate of binge or heavy drinking — 21% compared to an overall rate of 20% for Colorado and 19% for the nation overall.
On average, Boulder County residents have far more access to primary care physicians and mental health providers than the rest of Coloradans.
The leading causes of death for people under age 75 in the county are cancer, heart disease, accidents and intentional self-harm, according to the report.
The ranking used data from the National Center for Health Statistics registration systems, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System telephone survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tracking Program, the American Medical Association’s Area Health Resource File, the U.S. Census Bureau and dozens of other sources.
