Yet again, Philadelphia has been ranked Pennsylvania’s least-healthy county

The latest County Health Rankings report confirms an unfortunate status quo: Philadelphia is not only the poorest big city in the U.S., but the least healthy county in Pennsylvania — again.

The report, released by the Princeton-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute, ranks the health of almost every county in the country according to factors such as access to medical care, housing and violent crime.

Of the counties surrounding Philadelphia, Chester ranks first in health outcomes, Montgomery is ranked fourth, Bucks is ranked seventh and Delaware is ranked 49th.

“As the state team lead agency analyzing the rankings for Pennsylvania, we find that the information is an important way to understand the relationship between where we live and our health,” said Francine Axler, director of Philadelphia-based Public Health Management Corporation’s (PHMC) Community Health Database.

“The combination of PHMC Health Database findings and the rankings are helpful to see where certain counties need improvement so public health organizations … can target and address specific health issues on a local level,” she said.