Best state: Hawaii, for its healthy population

It must be hard not to be healthy in Hawaii.

The sun, the surf, the landscape — who could stay indoors?

So, it’s no wonder that, for the second year in a row, the United Health Foundation rated Hawaii’s population the healthiest in America.

Hawaii scores far better than the national average in almost every category the foundation measures. Just less than 22 percent of Hawaiians are obese, compared with a national average of 29 percent. Colorado is the only state with a lower rate of obesity.

Hawaii has the lowest proportion of preventable hospitalizations. Binge drinking in the state is down 15 percent through the past two years, and smoking rates declined 21 percent. The share of children in poverty in Hawaii dropped from 20.7 percent, when the first health rankings were released in 1990, to just 12.7 percent today.

Citizens in healthy states have one big thing in common: They’re physically active.

Of the 10 states where the most people reported being physically active, five — Colorado, Vermont, Utah, New Hampshire and Hawaii — were rated among the 10 healthiest states overall.

Poorer states in the South are most likely to fall to the bottom of the health rankings.

States such as Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma, the five least-healthy, all have much lower rates of physical activity, higher rates of smoking and higher rates of obesity.

But we all have work to do: The report chronicles the stunning rise of obesity during just a quarter-century, from 11.6 percent of Americans in 1990 to nearly 30 percent today. Rates of diabetes have more than doubled, to 9.6 percent.

If you’re looking for a way to get active, a trip to Hawaii could be a good first step — for the views and for the inspiration of being around America’s healthiest people.

Wilson is the author of Read In, The Washington Post’s new morning tipsheet on politics.