Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the County Health Rankings ranks NJ’s 21 counties based on a variety of criteria, including not only health status and disease rates, but also levels of unemployment, rates of poverty, the physical environment and access to care. Somerset County ranks as one of the healthiest counties in the state. Click here for 2023’s results.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is conducted by the NJ Department of Education and provides information about the self-reported behaviors among high school students. These behaviors are related to the most important causes of preventable premature illness and death among youth and young adults. Results from the most recent survey are here.

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) study assesses the health status of a sample of county residents. Results of these assessments help to guide the activities of public health practitioners. BRFSS studies are done at the county, state and national level. Click here for more information.

Communities also utilize other assessments to target what their top health issues are. With the results from a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), they create a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to improve the health and wellbeing of those who live and work in their area. The most recent Somerset County Health Needs Assessment identified the areas of mental health and substance abuse, obesity, chronic disease and access to care, that needed improvement. Click here for the Community Health Improvement Plan that addresses those needs.

Recently, the Commission has joined the City Health Dashboard. The Dashboard provides cities big and small with city- and neighborhood-level data on health and its social drivers, as well as data broken down by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Local data for towns served by the Commission is available on the site with access to over 25 measures of health. The various metrics include information such as health outcomes, social and economic factors, health behaviors, physical environment, and clinical care. To explore the dashboard, click here.

There are many sources of national and state-level health data. County-level data is less abundant, though available for certain criteria. Municipal-level data is a far greater challenge to obtain. As additional, reliable sources of health data become available, we will continue to add to this page.