The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conducted a nationwide survey of  “health factors” by county, and you can see the rankings on this map, which gives a relative number for each county within each state.

For instance, surprisingly — considering its known air quality problems — Nevada County ranked relatively well at 14th among the 56 of California’s 58 counties that were ranked (where number 1, Marin, is best and Del Norte, number 56, is worst). Sierra and Alpine counties were not ranked.

The San Jose Mercury News reports it this way:

The least-healthy place to live in California is Del Norte County and other sparsely populated, rural areas in the northernmost reaches of the state.

The rankings enable residents to compare how their county stacks up against others within each state based on how long people live, how healthy they are, the quality of medical care, access to healthy food, air pollution, percentage of residents who smoke or are obese and numerous other categories.

Researchers analyzed 56 of the 58 California counties. San Mateo County was fifth in the rankings. Other Bay Area counties placing in the top half were Contra Costa (19th), Alameda (23rd) and Solano (28th).

Many of the lowest-ranked counties had premature death rates two to three times higher than other counties. The deaths often were caused by preventable conditions.

Some highlights for Nevada County include:

Adult Obesity: 21%
Binge Drinking: 14%
Teen Birth Rate: 20 (per 1000 aged 15-19)
Primary Care Provider Rate: 135 (per 100,000 population)
Uninsured Adults: 19% (under age 65)
Children in Poverty: 12% (under age 18)
Air Pollution Ozone Days: 42 (per year)

See a detailed profile for Nevada County here.