Background: Across the United States, health outcomes and factors vary greatly by county. According to the Department of Education, the United States has approximately 3,026 degree granting institutions. With great diversity in county health rankings it is possible that academic institutions affect this health status. Little research has focused on the extent to which degree granting institutions have on county level health. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine if there is an association between county health rankings and the presence or absence of degree granting institutions. Methods: We used data from the 2016 Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings and the 2016 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System maintained by the Institute of Education Sciences. Information was collected on the counties physical environment, social and economic factors, clinical care, health behaviors, health outcomes, and presence or absence of a degree granting institution. In addition, the percent of the population over 65, percent female, percent of the population in rural location, percent not proficient in English and racial and ethnic characteristics including the percent of the population: African American, American Indian or Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Hispanic. The dependent variable of interest is the presence of a degree granting institution which offers at least a Bachelors degree as defined by the Carnegie classification. Logistic regression was utilized to determine the association between independent and dependent variables. Results: In all, 3,062 observations are included in this dataset. Out of the 3,062 counties, 2,480 counties had at least one institution present. Counties that are ranked in the middle quartile for length of life (OR=1.46; 95% CI: 1.08-1.97), quality of life (OR=0.95; 95% CI: 0.72-1.26), and social and economic environment (OR=0.81; 95% CI: 0.6-1.08) are more likely to have a degree granting institution. Counties that ranked in the highest quartile for health behaviors (OR= 1.88; 95% CI: 1.35-2.62), clinical care OR=1.63; 95% CI: 1.17-2.26), and physical environment (OR=1.34; 95% CI: 1.05-1.73) were more likely to have a degree granting institution. Conclusion: This result provides additional context into the health of US counties, and provides indication that health ranking and the presence of a degree granting institution are positively associated. This finding is important in that this relationship has not been previously determined, yet Universities and degree granting institutions often make claims to this end. Furthermore, as ongoing debates concerning county, state and federal budgets occur, it is important to determine the far ranging impacts institutions of higher learning provide to the communities in which they reside.