Are you living in a healthy place?

The Robert Wood Johnson report released Wednesday looked at 25 factors, including childhood poverty, obesity and smoking rates, as well as social and economic factors, like graduation and crime rates to rank counties.

St. Joseph County, Indiana came in average, placing 43rd out of 92 counties.

That's the same ranking the county received last year, which has some health providers concerned.

"We were not surprised," said Robin Meleski, director of health education at the St. Joseph County Health Department.

"Glad that we didn't go down," added Meleski.

According to the Indiana list, LaGrange County ranked highest in the WSBT coverage area coming in at 5th, followed by Elkhart at 14, then Marshall and St. Joseph County in Indiana.

Two counties in northwest Indiana that ranked low are LaPorte and Starke counties, coming in at 69th and 88th place respectively.

One specific area of concern for St. Joseph County -- the health of children.

The study found 30% of kids in the county are poor and 37% are raised in single-parent homes.

"You like to be number one, you like to be on top, but when you see this sort of thing, you have a dose of reality," explains Dr. Jesse Hseih, president of the South Bend Clinic, which serves 125,000 patients. "And then it opens up opportunities."

Hseih and Meleski say people should not let the rankings get them down, but instead be used as a call to action.

"We have been trying initiatives to try to improve, but it's really a global effort that requires work of governmental agencies, public health, hospital system, providers, the schools and especially people, individual people saying this is important," stresses Hseih.

Meleski thinks current health initiatives will likely improve next year's ranking.

"It's a great snapshot of where we are and where we're moving," said Meleski.  

"What people can take away is be more involved."

Some other factors where St. Joseph County ranked low were in smoking and obesity rates and physical inactivity.

The report showed excessive drinking and violent crime are also a concern.

Michigan county rankings

Researchers ranked 82 counties in Michigan. WSBT looked at three.

Berrien and St. Joseph County performed poorly.

Berrien ranked 60th, St. Joseph, 63rd, and Cass County did better at 44th place in quality of health.

Some concerning numbers particularly for Berrien County. Smoking and obesity rates are highest of the three counties we focused on.

29% of people in Berrien are physically inactive.

38% of children there live in single-parent homes. 28% are also poor.

The study also indicates another big health problem in Berrien County is STDs.

537 cases were reported, more than all of the cases in Cass and St. Joseph Counties combined.