Calif.'s Healthiest County: Marin

Is it the rarified air, the open space, the Bay views? Whatever Marin County's secret, it's working: Marin was voted California's most healthiest county for the third year running -- despite a penchant to over-tipple.

A full 24 percent of Marin residents admitted to binge drinking -- that is, consuming in one sitting four or more drinks for women, five or more for men -- three times the national average, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

The facts are based on an annual survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The academics looked at key factors like the rate of people self-reporting bad or good health, dying before the age of 75, and reports of general physical and mental well-being, according to the newspaper.

Marin won healthiest county because only 4,004 Marin residents per 100,000 of the population died before the age of 75 compared with the state average of 6,126 per 100,000, according to the newspaper. And only 8 percent of Marin residents said their health was fair or poor compared with the state average of 18 percent.

But there are "two Marins," according to the newspaper: 18 percent of Marin residents under the age of 65 lack health insurance, more than the national benchmark of 13 percent. This is part because of poverty in areas like San Rafael's Canal District, according to reports.