CUMMING, Ga. — Forsyth County has been named the healthiest county in Georgia for the seventh year in a row.
The County Health Rankings measure a number of factors to come up with their ratings every year, including health factors like life expectancy, behaviors like smoking or obesity and social and economic factors like poverty.
Several other metro Atlanta counties fared well in the study, with Cherokee, Fayette, Gwinnett, Cobb and Coweta counties all appearing in the top ten. Fulton County came in at No. 11 on the list.
The rankings were generally positive across the board for Forsyth County, but residents there fared particularly well against Georgia and the national top performers in premature death, which is an index that measures lives lost before 75 years of age from factors such as cancer, heart disease, suicide and accidents.
Forsyth County residents are also considered as better off than many top national performer on having access to healthy foods.
While most of the news is positive, however, the rankings do note that the county is trending in the wrong direction in obesity rates.
And the county's lowest ratings were thanks to those long, lonely commutes to work. According to the study, 52 percent of county residents commute more than 30 minutes to work, and they do it alone. That's worse than the state average and far worse than top national performers.
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