Sussex 5th Healthiest County in New Jersey

A new study ranked Sussex County as New Jersey's third healthiest county for the third straight year.

Released Tuesday, the study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Unviersity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute said Hunterdon County was the state's healthiest while Cumberland County was at the bottom of the list.

Among the study's measures were adult smoking, obesity, excessive drinking sexually transmitted infections and teen birth rate. It also took into account pollution, employment, violent crime and education.

Rounding out the study's top five were Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Bergen and Sussex counties. The bottom five? In ascending order, Cumberland, Salem, Essex, Camden and Atlantic counties.

Sussex Countuy fared well against the national benchmark, reflecting the top-performing counties in the U.S., the study said.

Its percentages of adult smoking, adult obesity, physical activities, motor vehicle crash death rate and teen birth rate hung around national benchmarks, the study said.

But the county did experience more than double the amount of excessive drinking a little more physical inactivity than the nation's top counties, the study said.

Regarding socioeconomic factors, 96 percent of Sussex County students graduate high school though less of its residents have at least some college education compared to the national benchmark, the study said. Sussex County's percentage of children in poverty and children in single-parent homes also fared well against the country's top counties, the study said.

Click here for the complete New Jersey rankings.