For the fifth year in a row, Carver County ranks first in health outcomes among all 87 Minnesota counties, according to the 2017 County Health Rankings report recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The report ranks nearly every county nationwide on 35 factors that affect health, including education, transportation, housing, jobs, diet and exercise.

Carver County was ranked second in Minnesota for factors that contribute to health outcomes and determine length and quality of life. Health factors include 30 measures related to health behaviors, clinical care, physical environment and social and economic factors.

It ranked at the top in local graduation rates — now at 95 percent — and in jobs. Unemployment in Carver County has dipped to 3.2 percent.

Counties on Minnesota's Iron Range, such as Beltrami and Itasca, were ranked lowest on the list due to high rates of obesity, children in poverty and alcohol-related driving deaths.

LIZ SAWYER