Ventura County in California has just been announced as the country's best county based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) natural amenities index devised in the late 1990s.
According to a report released by L.A. Curbed, the index was made as "a measure of the physical characteristics of a county area that enhance the location as a place to live." It is based on "six measures of climate, topography, and water area that reflect environmental qualities most people prefer." Parts of these qualities include manageable winter and summer weathers, low humidity, variation in the area's land forms, and proximity to a body of water.
Ventura, which is composed of 10 cities, is surrounded by Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. The smallest city in the county based on population is Ojai, popular for its hippie-friendly culture.
Second place goes to Humboldt County, while Los Angeles County ranked third.
As reported by the Washington Post, all counties in the Top 10 are all in California, a distinction that can't be said of the Great Lakes region. The region - composed of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - did badly, so to speak. The worst-performing county is Red Lake County in Minnesota because "it is the only landlocked county in the United States that is surrounded by just two neighboring counties." This is a description from the county's website.
According to a study by Baylor University in Texas, the natural beauty of the county and its population's religious attendance is correlated. The original report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture also stated that the index "drives rural population change."
USDA said that the 'natural aspects of attractiveness' are not expected to vary much over time, so the USDA was not able to update the data beyond the initial 1999 counting.
Data from states outside the continental United States were not incorporated into the index, which is the reason why none of the counties from Alaska and Hawaii appear on the list.