Healthy Kids Populate Santa Clara County

Written by Lauren Gibbs and Jacob Bourne: 

Children in Santa Clara 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, Santa Clara County came in at No. 19. A number of other California counties also made the list, including Yolo at No. 24, San Francisco at No. 2, San Mateo at No. 9 and Sonoma at No. 49. Marin County earned the No. 1 spot.

The ranking took into account statistics like fewer babies born with a low birth weight, lower infant death and teen birth rates, fewer children in poverty and a lower 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. Santa Clara County earned an 87.3, according to the data.

In Santa Clara County, 6.7 percent of children are born under 5.5 pounds compared to 7.9 percent for the country median. The children in poverty percentage for Santa Clara County comes in at 12.6 percent. The country media comes in at almost double, at 24 percent, according to the data.

Santa Clara County’s infant death rate, per 100,000, is 376.3 compared to the U.S. median of 697.2. The county’s teen birth rate, per 1,000, is at 16.5 compared to 44 for the U.S. median. The injury death rate of children under age 19, per 100,000, for Santa Clara County is an unimpressive 25.7 compared to the U.S. median of 21.7.

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 article.

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