According to a new report submitted by a nonprofit United Health Foundation, the healthiest state in the country is Vermont.
 
The ranking depends on 22 indicators of health which includes everything from the number of children receiving recommended vaccinations, to obesity and smoking rates, to cancer deaths.
 
Vermont attributes its top-ranking partly to its low rate of obesity, high number of doctors and low rate of child poverty.
 
Another state that sets a benchmark for the country is New England. All six New England states are in top 10. These states have an efficient public health infrastructure and favorable demographics including a large number of doctors per capita.
 
The bottom 10 states include 8 from the southern region and Mississippi ranking the last one for the ninth consecutive year. It has a high death rate from heart disease and high infant mortality.
 
The residents of this states are generally found to be smokers or suffering from obesity. Other factors that make it the least healthy state is the worse health insurance and fewer physicians.

The procedure of gathering scores for every state is done by collecting data from various government and non-governmental databases and then comparing the states with each other to determine which state is better or worse than the national average for each measure.