Data curated by Graphiq and HealthGrove.
by Sabrina Perry
With regard to sex education, the United States trails behind most developed countries. According to a report released by the Guttmacher Institute last year, America’s rate of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion are among the highest compared to countries of similar GDP.
In Switzerland, for example, researchers found “exceptionally low teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates […] where long-established sex education programs, free family planning services and low-cost emergency contraception are widely available.”
The lack of formalized, nation-wide sex education in the U.S. might explain the high rates of sexually transmitted diseases in many states. Despite numerous studies refuting the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education, many states still adopt it (if they adopt sex education at all). Even in many states that do have sex education programs, the education is not necessarily required to be medically accurate, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Despite many advancements in healthcare in the past decade, both gonorrhea and chlamydia rates have seen upward trends since 2009. The advent of dating and hook-up apps, such as Tinder, in addition to the confused and inconsistent state of sex education in America might help explain these trends.
Considering these are the two most common STDs, HealthGrove wanted to examine their rates across the country. Using the most recent county-level data from the Health Indicators Warehouse (2012), we found the county in every state with the highest total STD rate (a combination of gonorrhea and chlamydia rates) and ranked them on this from lowest to highest.
According to our data, eastern and southern states have many of the highest-ranking counties, but most states have reported increases across the board.
Note: We looked at counties with 100,000 people or more. Because of this population threshold, Wyoming was not included.
#49. Strafford County, NH
Chlamydia Rate: 287 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 15 per 100K people
Population: 123,836 people
#48. Chittenden County, VT
Chlamydia Rate: 322 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 23 per 100K people
Population: 157,637 people
#47. Ada County, ID
Chlamydia Rate: 361 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 17 per 100K people
Population: 401,673 people
#46. Salt Lake County, UT
Chlamydia Rate: 369 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 32 per 100K people
Population: 1,048,314 people
#45. Missoula County, MT
Chlamydia Rate: 396 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 11 per 100K people
Population: 110,243 people
#44. Kanawha County, WV
Chlamydia Rate: 455 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 48 per 100K people
Population: 192,311 people
#43. Cass County, ND
Chlamydia Rate: 445 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 58 per 100K people
Population: 154,080 people
#42. Clark County, NV
Chlamydia Rate: 429 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 98 per 100K people
Population: 1,976,925 people
#41. Multnomah County, OR
Chlamydia Rate: 447 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 100 per 100K people
Population: 747,641 people
#40. New Haven County, CT
Chlamydia Rate: 464 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 94 per 100K people
Population: 862,611 people
#39. Honolulu County, HI
Chlamydia Rate: 522 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 75 per 100K people
Population: 964,678 people
#38. Providence County, RI
Chlamydia Rate: 533 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 70 per 100K people
Population: 627,469 people
#37. Androscoggin County, ME
Chlamydia Rate: 425 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 179 per 100K people
Population: 107,634 people
#36. Pierce County, WA
Chlamydia Rate: 531 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 80 per 100K people
Population: 805,434 people
#35. New Castle County, DE
Chlamydia Rate: 518 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 104 per 100K people
Population: 542,784 people
#34. Ramsey County, MN
Chlamydia Rate: 518 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 112 per 100K people
Population: 515,732 people
#33. Douglas County, NE
Chlamydia Rate: 581 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 148 per 100K people
Population: 524,697 people
#32. Pennington County, SD
Chlamydia Rate: 620 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 175 per 100K people
Population: 102,752 people
#31. Black Hawk County, IA
Chlamydia Rate: 667 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 140 per 100K people
Population: 131,468 people
#30. San Juan County, NM
Chlamydia Rate: 760 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 59 per 100K people
Population: 128,476 people
#29. Anchorage Municipality, AK
Chlamydia Rate: 810 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 79 per 100K people
Population: 295,237 people
#28. San Francisco County, CA
Chlamydia Rate: 591 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 301 per 100K people
Population: 817,501 people
#27. Essex County, NJ
Chlamydia Rate: 665 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 247 per 100K people
Population: 785,853 people
#26. Jefferson County, KY
Chlamydia Rate: 676 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 237 per 100K people
Population: 746,580 people
#25. Wyandotte County, KS
Chlamydia Rate: 741 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 209 per 100K people
Population: 158,348 people
#24. Suffolk County, MA
Chlamydia Rate: 817 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 142 per 100K people
Population: 735,701 people
#23. Comanche County, OK
Chlamydia Rate: 776 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 214 per 100K people
Population: 124,591 people
#22. Navajo County, AZ
Chlamydia Rate: 847 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 175 per 100K people
Population: 107,326 people
#21. Denver County, CO
Chlamydia Rate: 862 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 172 per 100K people
Population: 619,297 people
#20. Richland County, SC
Chlamydia Rate: 845 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 236 per 100K people
Population: 389,708 people
#19. Pulaski County, AR
Chlamydia Rate: 801 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 284 per 100K people
Population: 386,106 people
#18. Leon County, FL
Chlamydia Rate: 903 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 189 per 100K people
Population: 278,624 people
#17. Hamilton County, OH
Chlamydia Rate: 820 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 295 per 100K people
Population: 802,481 people
#16. Peoria County, IL
Chlamydia Rate: 824 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 336 per 100K people
Population: 187,117 people
#15. Bibb County, GA
Chlamydia Rate: 894 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 431 per 100K people
Population: 155,524 people
#14. Wayne County, MI
Chlamydia Rate: 978 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 369 per 100K people
Population: 1,804,507 people
#13. Milwaukee County, WI
Chlamydia Rate: 1,054 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 329 per 100K people
Population: 950,527 people
#12. Shelby County, TN
Chlamydia Rate: 1,053 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 390 per 100K people
Population: 932,919 people
#11. Marion County, IN
Chlamydia Rate: 1,100 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 360 per 100K people
Population: 912,242 people
#10. Bronx County, NY
Chlamydia Rate: 1,209 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 257 per 100K people
Population: 1,397,315 people
#9. Cumberland County, NC
Chlamydia Rate: 1,107 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 361 per 100K people
Population: 322,033 people
#8. Orleans Parish, LA
Chlamydia Rate: 1,162 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 388 per 100K people
Population: 357,013 people
#7. Baltimore City, MD
Chlamydia Rate: 1,242 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 313 per 100K people
Population: 621,445 people
#6. Bell County, TX
Chlamydia Rate: 1,237 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 348 per 100K people
Population: 316,144 people
#5. Richmond City, VA
Chlamydia Rate: 1,311 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 360 per 100K people
Population: 207,878 people
#4. Hinds County, MS
Chlamydia Rate: 1,238 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 547 per 100K people
Population: 246,300 people
#3. Montgomery County, AL
Chlamydia Rate: 1,252 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 563 per 100K people
Population: 228,980 people
#2. Philadelphia County, PA
Chlamydia Rate: 1,344 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 471 per 100K people
Population: 1,536,704 people
#1. St. Louis City, MO
Chlamydia Rate: 1,283 per 100K people
Gonorrhea Rate: 554 per 100K people
Population: 318,955 people
Research Conditions on HealthGrove
