By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

Shelby County’s residents are the most insured in Alabama in several categories, according to a ranking recently compiled by a national consumer advocacy website.

The Smartasset.com website recently published its listing of the most-insured counties in each state, and Shelby County topped the list for the second year in a row.

“Insurance is the ultimate form of forward thinking: small contributions now save a lot of trouble for you and your loved ones in the future. So what areas of the country are doing the best to stay covered?” read the website. “SmartAsset looked at data on the three main types of personal insurance – auto, health and life – to find the most insured places in the U.S. We ranked each city and county in our study based on the population coverage rates across these three forms of insurance; areas with higher rates ranked higher. We then calculated an average ranking, giving equal weight to the three types of insurance.

“Finally, we indexed the results to 100, with the most insured location in the country getting a 100,” read the website.

Shelby County slightly edged out Cherokee County in northeast Alabama for the top spot on the list. Shelby County has an 82.1 percent of auto insurance coverage, a 92.08 percent of health insurance coverage and a 108.36 percent of life insurance coverage to give Shelby County an overall coverage index of 68.59.

Cherokee County came in at No.2 on the list, with an 85.4 percent of auto insurance coverage, a 90.6 percent of health insurance coverage and an 87 percent of life insurance coverage to give it an overall coverage index of 68.06.

Rounding out the top 10 were Fayette County with an overall coverage index of 67.44, Elmore County with an overall coverage index of 66.84, St. Clair County with an overall coverage index of 66.33, Colbert County with an overall coverage index of 66.2 and Autauga County with an overall index of 66.18.

Coming in at No. 8 was Marion County with an overall coverage index of 65.38, followed by Bibb County with a 63.76 index and Lee County with a 62.97 coverage index.

To view the entire list, visit Smartasset.com/life-insurance/how-much-life-insurance-do-i-need#alabama/overall.