Vermont Called Healthiest State

Vermont has passed Minnesota to become the healthiest state, according to a new report from the United Health Foundation.

More: State-By-State Rankings

The group's 18th annual report found that those two states are followed by Hawaii, New Hampshire and Connecticut based on measures such as death rates from disease, insurance coverage and infant mortality rates.

The authors of the report said Vermont was an excellent example, because it showed that improvements can be made. Over six years, the smoking rate has dropped from 21.5 percent to 18 percent there, and child poverty was cut in half.

The five worst states -- from No. 46 to 50 -- were Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

As A Nation

The report said the overall health of the nation declined .3 percent this year. Despite improvements in some areas, such as cardiac deaths, increasing obesity and growth in the number of uninsured people, among other things, brough the overall measure down.

From 1990 to 2000, the group saw an increase in health overall, but said it has been stagnant since then.

Other items included in the ranking are smoking, drinking, crime, disease and high school graduation rates.

Since the report started in 1990, the group said, the nation has gotten 18.4 percent healthier, mainly because of drops in smoking, infant mortality and crime.

However, obesity has increased from 11.6 percent of the population in 1990 to more than 25 percent today. More than 55 million Americans are obese, according to the group.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans who are uninsured has increased from 13.4 percent in 1990 to 15.8 percent of the population today.

It also said that the U.S. spends twice as much as nations such as Australia, Canada and Germany on health but is falling behind in areas such as life expectancy.

The full report is available online.