"New Hampshire has always scored well in our annual competition," said Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press. "The state last won the Healthiest State Award in 1995 and has ranked in the top ten for the annual honor for all but one year. New Hampshire made particularly impressive progress in the last year, moving from #4 in 1999 to #1 in 2000."

The eighth annual Healthiest State Award is based on 21 health-related factors from Health Care State Rankings, an annual reference book that compares the 50 United States in more than 500 health care categories. The 2000 edition of Health Care State Rankings was published this week. Factors considered include infant mortality rates, the percent of population not covered by health insurance, per capita expenditures for health care, percent of population lacking access to primary medical care, childhood immunization rates, and percent of adults who smoke.

"Our award reflects which states’ citizens have the best access to health care providers, affordable health care services and a generally healthy population," Morgan said. "New Hampshire does well in a number of reproductive health areas, has good access to primary care physicians and a high level of health care insurance coverage. Mississippi, on the other hand, struggles with a number of health problems, including high infant mortality rates, a high percentage of births to teenage mothers and a high sexually transmitted disease rate."

Following first place New Hampshire were Vermont in second place, Minnesota in third, Hawaii in fourth and Utah in fifth. Bringing up the end of the rankings scale were Mississippi in last place, Louisiana in 49th, Alabama in 48th, South Carolina in 47th and Nevada in 46th place.

The Healthiest State Award is one of four designations announced annually by Morgan Quitno Press in conjunction with the publication of its Health Care State Rankings reference book. The company's other annual announcements designate the nation’s Safest City and Metro Area, the Most Livable State and the Safest and Most Dangerous States. Each of these other awards and designations is based on data from annual Morgan Quitno reference publications.