Dallas is just below average relative to the state in nearly every health measure, according to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Though we aren’t far off the average, Dallas residents are more likely to smoke, be obese, be killed on the road due to alcohol, have a teen pregnancy and catch a sexually transmitted disease than rest of the state. We are less likely to be physically active or have access to exercise opportunities.
Dallas does have less excessive drinking and fewer preventable hospital stays than the state average. Overall Dallas County ranks as the 54th healthiest county in Texas. Denton is the healthiest county in the state according to the report, and Collin and Rockwall counties are both in the top 10. Tarrant County ranks 32 and Dallas is one spot above Houston’s Harris County.
In a report from the American Communities Project, which came out this October, it details how Dallas compares to other big cities nationwide. In Dallas County, 19 percent of people report being in poor or fair health, while in other large cities, only 17% say so.
Dallas is the most uninsured big city in the country, with the rate for adults and children sitting at 27 percent and 11 percent respectively. In large urban areas nationwide, the median uninsured rate for adults is 14 percent and 4 percent for children.
Healthcare providers are also less frequent in Dallas than other big cities. In Dallas County, there are 1,450 residents for each physician, while nationwide the rate is 1,150:1. For mental health providers, Dallas has a ratio of 780:1 providers to residents. The large city median nationwide is 337:1.
Explore the Robert Wood Johnson data here and the American Communities Project report here.
