A report on nearly every county in the nation is prepared yearly by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  In Illinois, Woodford County is the healthiest and Alexander County ranks last.  In fact many counties in southern Illinois rank in the bottom of the 102 counties in Illinois.  Washington County is ranked 39^th overall.  It is 36^th in Length of Life, 50^th in Quality of Life, but has its best ranking at 19^th in Health Factors.  Part of this category is ranking 11^th in the state in Social and Economic Factors.  Washington County usually ranks in the top 5 or top 10 of all counties in the lowest unemployment rate every month.  The study looks at factors such as high school graduation rates, access to health providers and healthy foods as well as rates of smoking, obesity and teen births.  Alexander County usually has one of the high unemployment rates every month and 49 percent of children there were living in poverty and unemployment.