How Healthy Are South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa?
With more and more focus being placed on things like wellness and self-care these days, just how does the tri-state area stack up against the rest of the country when it comes to overall health?
To find out, LifeExtension looked at the latest physical and mental health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Google Trends to rank the Best and Worst States for Wellness.
So where exactly did South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa fall on the list?
Overall, the Mount Rushmore State is in the bottom half at 32nd overall, although that is a bit misleading.
While South Dakota was next to last behind only Montana in online searches for vitamins, the state was second best behind Illinois with the highest percentage of adults who reported no poor mental health days in the past two weeks (68.5%).
South Dakota also pulled in a number three ranking in both sleep (at least seven hours of sleep in the past 24 hours) and physical health (no poor physical health days in the past two weeks).
In the tri-state area, only Minnesota ranked in the upper half of states for overall health and wellness.
Minnesota is 23rd, thanks to a second-best showing (behind Colorado) in sleep.
The news was not so good for folks in Iowa, where the state was all the way down at number 46.
Iowa's worst showing was in access to national parks, where the state tied for dead last with Illinois, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
WORST STATES FOR HEALTH & WELLNESS
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Louisiana
- Iowa
- Delaware
- North Dakota
- Nebraska
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
BEST STATES FOR HEALTH & WELLNESS
- California
- Arizona
- Florida
- Washington
- Hawaii
- Utah
- Alaska
- Wyoming
- New Jersey
- Colorado