United Health Foundation Ranking
In a non-profit organization's ranking of the 50 healthiest states, Wisconsin is 13th. While that may seem like good news, it's a drop from last year's ninth place in the United Health Foundation's survey.
The state is still in the top ten for high graduation rates, low violent crime rates and only 10% of the population without insurance.
But the survey estimates the obesity rate in the state has increased more than 100% in the last ten years.
"Wisconsin does not do well in that category and it does lead to a lot of health problems. Being overweight and even worse than that, (being obese) is something our state and local folks need to look at and at least locally we are," says Ryder, referring to the Energize Eau Claire program.
Other negative factors included one in five residents that still smoke and the number of children under 18 living in poverty has increased almost 20 percent in the last year.
For the complete survey results on Wisconsin, check the United Health Foundation's website.
WEAU 13 News Poll
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