Out of all 72 counties in Wisconsin, Menominee has highest income inequality, housing problems, numbers of children living in poverty and children in single-parent households, as well as the lowest high school graduation rates, access to exercise opportunities and food environment quality. These risks lead to poor health behaviors and outcomes such as adult smoking, obesity, poor mental and physical health, poor general health and even premature death.

Menominee is also unique among Wisconsin’s 72 counties for sharing coterminous borders with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Recognizing local health disparities, the tribe is pursuing efforts to improve the factors that can influence them. Menominee Nation won a 2015 Culture of Health prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for its work to address historic trauma and contemporary social disadvantage.

Graduation rates from Menominee Indian High School have increased dramatically in recent years, and local health officials are shifting to a trauma-informed care model to improve the lives of local residents. These efforts to address the health equity crisis in Menominee County are ongoing. Other dissimilarities in health around Wisconsin are notable. For example, Dane and Ozaukee counties have very low obesity rates at about 24% of adults with a BMI of 30 or greater — compared to the statewide average of 31%, that’s quite a bit lower.

Highlighting the relationships between social and economic factors, and how influential they are on health, Dane and Ozaukee also have the highest percentages of adults with at least some college education, and Ozaukee has the lowest child poverty rate in the state at just 4.5%. Comparatively, Dane County’s child poverty rate is 9.3%, which is still below the state’s median of 15.3%. Violent crime in Milwaukee County reflects its position as the largest metro area in the state with a crime rate that is 10 times the median for all other counties – 1,020 reports per 100,000 population.

What else stands out? Over 90% of the working people of Florence County drive alone to work each day. Taylor County has the lowest rate of flu vaccination, with just 25% of Medicare enrollees getting the annual shot. And Adams County appears to have a dearth of both dentists and mental health professionals. As for health insurance, the number of people under age 65 who do not have it is much higher in Clark County, or 18%, compared to the next-highest counties of Menominee, at a 11.2% uninsurance rate, and Vilas at 11%.

Although these health measures are generally very reliable, reading too much into any one individual factor can be problematic. For example, although Adams County has an unusually low number of dentists per capita, the measure does not take into account that many residents could be driving to neighboring communities to access dental services. These locally low rates of health care provider access reflect the issue of long travel distances for health care in rural area.

It is best to interpret the measures in general terms. They may be used by public health departments and policymakers to help identify trends and problem areas, and anticipate those that need to be addressed as new needs arise.