All Over Albany

Saratoga County is healthy

A new set of county-by-county health rankings out this week pegs Saratoga as the second "healthiest" county in New York State.

Here are how the Capital Region counties stack up in the New York rankings, as compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin:

There are 62 counties in New York.

In this case, health outcomes refers to mortality (specifically premature death) and morbidity (people in poor physical health). Each county has its own page, which lists the the stats that contribute to the rankings.

Here are a few things that caught our eye when looking through the details for the Capital Region...

+ Using the survey's metric, only 27 percent of zip codes in Albany County have access to healthy food -- Rensselaer (31 percent), Schenectady (41 percent), and Saratoga (48 percent) all did better.

+ Albany County ranked 9th in the number of liquor stores per 10,000 people.

+ Among New York counties outside New York City, Schenectady had the highest violent crime rate per 10,000 people (the data are from 2005-2007). Albany was third highest.

+ Rensselaer County's high school graduation rate was 69 percent, the lowest in the Capital Region. It was still higher than New York State's average of 67 percent.

[Thanks, Solon!]

Bonus: the Capital Region recently ranked 79th nationally for "well being" on a national list of metro areas. [CBS6]

Earlier on AOA: New York's fattest counties