The percentage of Minnesotans who are obese has dropped, and the obesity rate is lower here than in other Upper Midwestern states, data released on Thursday show.

State health officials aren’t above some not-so-humble bragging about that.

“Minnesota was the only state in the region, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa, to succeed in keeping its obesity rates firmly below 30 percent,” the Minnesota Department of Health reported, citing newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From 2014 to 2015, the percentage of Minnesotans who meet the definition of obese dropped from 27.6 percent to 26.1 percent, the data show.

Although that still leaves more than 1.4 million of the state’s residents obese, the decline is “statistically significant,” said Annie Harala, northeastern Minnesota regional coordinator for SHIP — the Statewide Health Improvement Program.

But Dr. Stephen Park of Ely, who practices in weight management with 22 Essentia Health clinics, said he was suspicious of the data and considered the reported improvement marginal. The overall picture remains dire, Park said.

“If you look at the data, two-thirds of our country … is either overweight or obese,” Park said. “The estimates are that by 2020 half of our country is going to be prediabetic or diabetic.”

Nonetheless, he said, “I think we’re making some headway. We’ve learned a ton over the past 15 years.”

Minnesota is one of only four states — Montana, New York and Ohio are the others — in which the obesity rate declined, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported in an analysis of the data. It was the first time in a decade that any state experienced a decline. Obesity rates increased in Kansas and Kentucky and stayed about the same everywhere else.

Although Minnesota is leading the way in terms of obesity in the Upper Midwest, it still has a long way to go to catch up with Colorado, which had the nation’s lowest obesity at 20.2 percent. Louisiana had the highest rate, at 36.2 percent. It said 22 of the 25 states with the highest rates of obesity are in the South and Midwest.

Iowa had the highest rate in the Upper Midwest, at 32.1 percent. North Dakota was at 31 percent, Wisconsin at 30.7 percent and South Dakota at 30.4 percent.

Minnesota’s improvement is no accident, said Dr. Sarah Nelson, medical consultant for the Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board. She credited in particular the bipartisan health care reform in 2008 in which the Minnesota Legislature launched the SHIP.

“That has brought a lot more prevention into our community,” Nelson said.

The state spends more money on health than any area, even education, said state Sen. Roger Reinert, DFL-Duluth. “One of the things that becomes clear is … you have to be proactive,” he said. “The SHIP program was really intended to do that.”