Hunterdon County tops the list as New Jersey's healthiest county, according to an annual report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Statistics show Hunterdon outdid the state average on a number of individual measures including premature death, adult smoking and obesity, physical inactivity, sexually-transmitted infections, children in poverty and violent crime.

Once again, the healthiest counties also are the state's richest.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are Camden, Essex and Cumberland, which is the state's least healthy county.

"We know that premature death rates are an important indicator of how healthy a county is, and for Cumberland County...we see that about 8,000 years of potential life are lost," said Marjory Givens, associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

"Years of life lost" account for those who pass away before the age of 75. Comparatively, years lost in Hunterdon County amount to 3,900.

Counties with neighboring borders differ greatly, the data show.

For example, 92 percent of ninth-graders in Burlington County graduate high school in four years. In nearby Camden County, 85 percent do the same. In Ocean County, you can find 17 teen births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19. In neighboring Atlantic County, that number is at 32.

Photo credit: CountyHealthRankings.org
Photo credit: CountyHealthRankings.org
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Here's the ranking of New Jersey's healthiest counties, according to the report:

1. Hunterdon County

2. Morris County

3. Somerset County

4. Bergen County

5. Sussex County

6. Middlesex County

7. Monmouth County

8. Union County

9. Burlington County

10. Warren County

11. Ocean County

12. Hudson County

13. Mercer County

14. Passaic County

15. Cape May County

16. Gloucester County

17. Salem County

18. Atlantic County

19. Camden County

20. Essex County

21. Cumberland County

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