King County Ranks No. 32 in Healthiest Counties for Kids in the U.S.

This post was written by Lauren Gibbs.

Children in King County are pretty healthy according to a new U.S. News list of America's 50 Healthiest Counties for Kids.

Of about 1,200 counties across the U.S. that were evaluated, King County came in at No. 32. It was the only county in Washington to break the top 50.

Do you think King County lives up to its ranking? Should it be higher on the list? Tell us in the comments section.

The ranking took into account statistics like babies born with a low birth weight, infant death and teen birth rates, children in poverty and the injury death rate for children under age 19.

Also included in the ranking, but not displayed in the chart here, was each county’s percentage of uninsured children, access to physicians and parks and also adult smoking and obesity rates.

The counties were then given a score between 0 and 100 based on the results. King County earned an 84.3, according to the data.

In King County, 6.6 percent of children are born under 5.5 pounds, compared to 7.9 percent for the national median. Approximately 15 percent of children in the county are in poverty—well below the national median of 24 percent.

This data was part of another recently released ranking of U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals 2013-14. It’s the first national look at the county level that shows “how health and environmental factors affect the well-being of children younger than 18,” according to U.S. News.

More information on how other counties ranked is available in the U.S. News story here.