Connecticut Is A Leading State in Children's Health

In a new analysis of data ranking the states in children’s health, Connecticut had a number of bright spots, ranking 3rd in the highest percentage of children with excellent or very good health, 3rd in the highest percentage of children with recent medical and dental checkups, and 3rd in the highest percentage of children with excellent or very good teeth.

Overall, Connecticut ranked 13th among the states in a ranking of the Best States for Children’s Health. The leading states were District of Columbia, Hawaii, Vermont, Washington, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Colorado, New York and Massachusetts.

Connecticut ranked 9th in the share of uninsured children age 0-18, and 10th in the share of children 19 to 35 months old with all recommended vaccines. The state also ranked 11th in healthy-food access and 11th in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among children age 14-18, and 27th in the number of fast-foos restaurants per capita.

On the other end of the spectrum, Connecticut ranked 34th in the cost of a doctors’ visit, 41st in the out-of-pocket cost for children’s health care, and 29th in the number of pediatricians and family doctors per capita.

In order to determine the best and worst states for children’s health care, the financial services website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Kids’ Health & Access to Health Care, 2) Kids’ Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity and 3) Kids’ Oral Health. They evaluated these categories using 35 relevant metrics divided among the categories.

Last year, a report by the United Health Foundation, America's Health Rankings, found that Connecticut's strengths included high enrollment in early childhood education, low teen birth rate, and high prevalence of food sufficiency among children. A previous analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that in Connecticut, 13.3% of youth ages 10 to 17 have obesity, giving Connecticut a ranking of 32 among the 50 states and D.C., and, as of 2018, 16% of children were food insecure.