How Healthy is Marquette County?

There’s a new survey out measuring the health of every county in Michigan.

And while Marquette County shows up as fairly healthy, there are still some glaring areas that stand out.

The University of Wisconsin has just put out results for every county in the U.S.

For Michigan’s 83 counties, Marquette County ranks in the top 10 overall, coming in at number 9.

It’s number 1 in clinical care.

But the environment of the area shows up as a red flag for concern, though it has to do more with diet than outdoors.

Dr. Kevin Piggott of Marquette General says the county’s lack of access to healthy foods immediately stood out to him.

The survey factors that into what makes a healthy living environment.

It may be because there are few grocery stores; many areas of the county aren’t anywhere near one.

But it only considers grocery stores, not farmers’ markets, of which there are many in the area.

Dr. Piggott says the next step is to engage the community in discussion of how the area can be made healthier and carry out those recommendations.

The survey did look at every county in America, but it doesn’t compare counties from one state to another.

Nearly 50 students from an NMU community health nursing class joined the county Active Living Task Force at Lakeview Arena to get the results.