A recent study has revealed which counties in North Dakota are the healthiest.

Burleigh county, in which Bismarck is nestled, came in at the top of the list as the county with the best overall health, followed by Stark county in second and Mercer in third.

This comes as small surprise, given that the state of North Dakota as a whole has a smaller health-care-provider-to-patient ratio than most other states -- meaning we have more open access to healthcare.

In addition to healthcare access, poverty and education levels were the main factors considered for the study.

Our state has both a higher percentage of people with some college education (74%), and fewer children living in poverty (12%).

Taking away somewhat from that picture of good health is the fact that we also have a higher occurrence of drinking to excess and alcohol-related vehicular deaths.

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