TAHOE CITY, Calif. – Visit Placer, the official tourism organization for Placer County, announced that Placer County has been honored as the second-ranking county in quality of life among all counties in the state of California.

The rankings come from an annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps survey done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

According to the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps’ website, “the program provides data, evidence, guidance, and examples to build awareness of the multiple factors that influence health and support leaders in growing community power to improve health equity.”

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The survey looks at a bevy of factors, including outdoor recreation access, overall health, air quality, access to exercise, proximity to doctors, and the ratio of doctors to residents.

“The reason it’s super significant to us is that quality of life is something we really celebrate here in Placer County,” said Robert Haswell, Chief Executive Officer, of Visit Placer.

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Placer County is geographically unique because of its size. It reaches from Roseville to Tahoe City and Kings Beach, so Haswell said it’s broken into three regions; the valley, the foothills, and the mountains.
One of the driving factors in the high ranking is access to recreation.

“The access to recreational opportunities is really widespread throughout the county and that’s the thing that Visit Placer, when we talk about life at its peak, we believe those experiences are available to our residents, to our visitors throughout the county,” said Haswell. “You can be out in a really beautiful winery in the wine and hiking region, in the foothill area there is access to the river canyon and great parks, and up in the Tahoe basin, it’s unbelievable.”

Having Interstate I-80 connect all those areas offers a benefit to visits and locals alike.

Placer County Supervisor Cindy Gustafson said she isn’t surprised to see the county rank so high.

“We have so many great opportunities living in Placer County, especially those of us between the Foothills and the High Sierra. Our access to the outdoors and open space, clean air and water, strong public safety, excellent health care, and the ability for year-round recreation contributes to our physical and mental well-being,” said Gustafson.

Although she added that she’d like to see Placer County get to the number one spot.

“I am dedicated to keeping our eye on getting to number one!”

Visit Placer uses these rankings to attract visitors, businesses, and new residents.

“[The survey] helps us lean in even more on that idea that you’re coming out here, you’re getting a chance to experience a real quality of life experience. That’s what we’re selling more than anything else, is our quality of life,” said Haswell.

Although Haswell wants to encourage new people to move to the county, he recognizes that at some point, population growth hurts quality of life.

“There’s no question if your infrastructure can’t handle an influx, it’s going to have negative impacts,” said Haswell. “That’s why part of our mission is really to include our communities and to include their voices and their concerns… if we’re going to bring people here, we need to do it in a responsible way.”

Placer County specifically ranked second in quality of life rankings. Overall, in the survey, Placer County ranked fourth out of the 58 counties. The county has ranked in the top four counties every year since 2011.

To see the rankings, visit https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/explore-health-rankings/california/placer?year=2023.