Health Rankings Show Montana Unchanged From 2010

The 2011 America's Health Rankings finds that Montana residents aren't as overweight as some, but the scales are tipping in the wrong direction. Overall, Montana ranks 25st out of 50 states for health, unchanged from 2010. The report released recently by United Health Foundation finds that Montana residents and the rest of the nation show troubling increases in obesity and diabetes rates. In the past ten years, obesity increased from 15.9 percent to 23.5 percent of Montana’s population. There are 180,000 obese adults in the state. In Montana, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic American Indians at 42 percent than non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics, both at 23 percent.

Smoking in the state has remained unchanged in the last ten with 144,000 adults reporting that they are still smoking. On a good note, in the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 21 percent to 19 percent of persons under age 18.