Vermont sub-classed Minnesota this year regarding the general healthiest state according to a report released on Monday by the United Health Foundation, a non-profit health advocacy group.

Together with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, the National Center for Health Statistics, the American Medical Association and the Census Bureau, they considered the major measures of wellness such as rates of obesity, infant mortality, cancer death, high school graduation and cardiovascular disease.

For example, 62.6 percent of pregnant women in Vermont benefited of good prenatal care in 1990, according to this report. The percentage rose in 2007 to 86.4 and it had visible results in the infant mortality, which dropped from 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births to 5.3 deaths in the same period.

In the same report, the number of cardiovascular deaths declined from 409 per 100,000 of population in 1990 to 287.9 per 100,000 in 2007. The same thing happened to the number of cancer deaths, which declined from 209.2 per 100,000 in 1990 to 195.4 this year.

The number of people who smoke tobacco also diminished from 30.7 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2007.

"In the last several years, we have taken extraordinary, even historic, steps toward achieving our goals of providing universal access to affordable health insurance for all Vermonters, improving quality and containing costs, and promoting healthy behavior and disease prevention across the entire life span through the chronic care initiative," Gov. Jim Douglas said.

"Our responsible, commonsense reforms are improving our health care system, aggressively contain costs, extending coverage to those currently without it and helping to make Vermont the healthiest state in the country," Douglas added.

"Even though specific mortality rates have improved, this report shows there are still many people who, through unhealthy personal behaviors, adverse community environments and difficult access to care, are vulnerable to a future life of poor health — which is essentially preventable. The consequence of this reality manifests itself in a poor quality of life, people living with chronic disease, compromised productivity and significant escalation in the costs associated with managing chronic illness," Dr. Reed Tuckson, member of the board of United Health Foundation said in a news release, Fox News reports.

Commissioner of Vermont’s Department of health, Sharon Moffatt said that a “full system” of people who work together in providing healthy behavior are responsible for placing Vermont in the top of the classification.

Hawaii, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were the following states in the classification, while southern states like Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee occupied the opposite side of the list.