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Midland County is ranked in the top 25% of Texas counties for health outcomes and health factors, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute 2022 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. The ranking measured health outcomes as current overall health and health factors as an indicator of the future health quality.
To measure health outcomes, the ranking used data for the length of life and quality of life, comparing factors such as premature deaths and the percentage of adults reporting fair or poor health. For health factors, the report compared a multitude of categories, including obesity, teen births, percentage of uninsured adults and unemployment.
Midland County was ranked 32nd out of the 244 Texas counties ranked in the report for health outcomes and 36th for health factors, according to the county health rankings.
Here’s how Midland County compared to the state and the U.S. on some of those factors.
Much of the data considered for health outcomes was about the same countywide as it was for the statewide average. For example, 21% of Midland County adults report fair or poor health, which is the same percentage of adults who do so statewide, data from the rankings show.
The percentage of adults nationwide who report having fair or poor health is slightly lower than the percentage in Texas at 17%. However, the average number of poor mental and physical health days in the last 30 days is higher nationwide at 3.9 days and 4.5 days, respectively.
Midland County residents reported an average of 3.7 days of poor physical health over the last 30 days, slightly higher than the state average of 3.6 days. A similar trend is true for days of poor mental health in the last 30 days. County residents reported an average of 4.0 days, while the Texas average was 3.9 days.
Brooks County, located in South Texas, is the worst-ranked county in the state for health outcomes with 38% of residents having fair or poor health, the report shows. Dallas-area Collin County ranks best in the state for health outcomes with 14% of people in the county reporting fair or poor health.
Midland County performed better than the Texas average in multiple categories for health factors. On the food environment index, which measures a healthy food environment on a scale of zero (worst) to 10 (best), Midland scored 8.3, markedly higher than the Texas statewide average (6.1). The county also has a lower uninsured rate (18%) compared to the state average (21%), a lower percentage of children in poverty (13% to 19%) and less violent crime per 100,000 people (314 to 420).
However, despite being in the top quarter of counties for health factors, the county performs worse than the state on a few factors. This includes a higher rate of sexually transmitted infections per 100,000 people (531.6 to 445.1), a higher rate of teen pregnancy per 1,000 female teens (42 to 29) and a higher unemployment rate (8.1% to 7.6%).
The worst-ranked county in Texas for health factors is Starr County in South Texas, according to the rankings. The county has a 17.3% unemployment rate and more than a third of children (35%) in the county are in poverty, with 47% of Starr County residents listed as obese and nearly one-third are uninsured (31%).
Collin County, the best-ranked county for health outcomes, is also the top county for health factors, the rankings show. The county performs better than the state in multiple factors, including uninsured rate (12%), sexually transmitted infections (245.9 per 100,000 people), teen pregnancies (9 per 1,000 female teens) and violent crime (157 crimes per 100,000 people).
Compared to the nation, Texas performs worse in some factors and better in others. The uninsured rate in Texas (21%) is almost double the rate of the U.S. (11%), the teen pregnancy rate is about a third higher (29 per 1,000 teen women in Texas compared to 19 nationally) and the rate of people per mental health clinic is more than double the national ratio (760:1 compared to 350:1). Additionally, the food environment index in Texas (6.1) is far below the U.S score (7.8).
The state performs much better than the nation with it comes to some sexually transmitted infections and injury-related deaths. The rate of newly diagnosed chlamydia cases per 100,000 people in Texas is 445.1 compared to 551.0 in the U.S. Texas has 60 deaths due to injury per 100,000 people compared to 72 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S.
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