We’re not there yet, but we’re well on our way.

Lincoln County was not judged the healthiest county in the state, but we did rank well into the top 50 percent among the state’s 82 counties in a recent national survey.

Lincoln came in at number 38 in the state in rankings announced last week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Among nearby Southwest Mississippi counties, Copiah County was 55th in the state, followed by Walthall, at 59th; Franklin, at 60th; Adams, at 66th; Lawrence, at 67th; Pike, at 73rd; and Jefferson, at 74th.

The only area county that ranked better than Lincoln was Amite, which earned a number 17 ranking.

The state’s top five healthy counties, according to the survey, are: 1) DeSoto, 2) Lamar, 3) Lafayette, 4) Rankin, and 5) Madison.

Least healthy are, starting from the bottom, Quitman, Coahoma, Wilkinson, Holmes and Claiborne.

While Lincoln’s ranking of 38th in the state is good compared to most of Southwest Mississippi, our county’s ranking does reflect a slight drop from last year, when we came in at 35th in Mississippi in the survey.

The Johnson Foundation and Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s recent report marks the fourth year in row the groups have surveyed nearly every U.S. county on some key health markers.

The survey assessment items were grouped into seven major areas: mortality, morbidity, health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

Data was collected from governmental statistical centers, from various other other data systems and from telephone surveys.

In the mortality category, which assessed premature death statistics, Lincoln ranked at 40th from the top in the state. In the morbidity category, which looked at low birth weight and statistics on sickness, Lincoln came in at 35th.

The health behaviors category looked at the prevalence of smoking, obesity, excessive and binge drinking, accident death rates, sexuality transmitted diseases and other factors. In this section, Lincoln ranked in the 20th percentile in the state.

Interestingly, though liquor is not legal in Lincoln County (except for beer in Brookhaven), the survey showed Lincoln with 10 percent binge or excessive drinking, compared to 11 percent for the state of Mississippi and 7 percent nationwide.

Our southern neighbor, Pike County, where alcoholic beverages are legal, earned the same statistics as Lincoln in the binge or excessive drinking category – 10 percent.

However, Lincoln’s neighbor to the north, Copiah, another wet county, was reported as having 14 percent binge or excessive drinking.

In the clinical care category, Lincoln was ranked 10th in the state, due in large part, no doubt, to the presence of the excellent facilities of King’s Daughters Regional Medical Center and the many fine physicians and dentists in the county.

Lincoln came in at 29th in the state for social and economic factors, which included such benchmarks as education levels, unemployment rates, children in poverty and children in single-parent households.

The county’s physical environment provided Lincoln with a ranking of ninth in the state, based on drinking water safety, recreational facilities, access to healthy foods and the number of fast food restaurants.

Apparently, the wide selection of burger houses and fried-chicken outlets along Brookhaven’s major thoroughfares did not provide us with any pluses for healthiness. The national benchmark on fast food was the 27th percentile, while Lincoln ranked at 68 percent, compared to 54 percent for the state.

So skip the milkshake and fries and head for the gym – and don’t forget that annual physical exam. Maybe next year, we’ll edge a few notches higher on the healthy county survey.

And our belts may fit a few notches tighter.

Rachel Eide is editor/general manager of The Daily Leader. Contact her at rachel.eide@dailyleader.com.