Living in a county with a big city is healthier?

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Thanks to Smabs Sputzer for the photo.
  • Thanks to Smabs Sputzer for the photo.

Welp, that's what this report from MSNBC and the Associated Press points to (see snippet below). What's not a surprise is that the more educated and wealthy you are, the better your health is likely to be.

"Affluent suburbs tend to have higher paying jobs, often in the cities, whereas rural communities often are dealing with loss of businesses" and declining populations of young people, who tend to be healthier, said Dr. Patrick Remington, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute. The institute produced the rankings with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and their second annual rankings report was being released online Wednesday.

Residents of rural communities also tend to have less education, less access to health care, and higher rates of substance abuse and smoking — all factors that contribute to the rankings.

Read the entire article, by Lindsey Tanner, here and find out how North Carolina's counties rank here. Don't worry, our big-city-havin' county is perty healthy compared to the rest.