2024: A Year in Review

Over the past year we have connected with many users in new ways and learned how they are using Dashboard data to improve health, well-being, and equity in their communities. There were many moments and milestones to be proud of.

Looking back on 2024, here are our top 10 highlights:

1. 1,100+ cities now on the Dashboard As of July, the Dashboard now provides data for over 1,000 US Cities... 1,103 to be exact!

2. 130 new cities added Building on our mission to provide data for as many cities as possible, we added 130 new cities through several initiatives:

• The ‘Put Us on the Map Challenge’ – an annual program which invites small to midsize cities to apply to join the Dashboard. Learn more about the 51 selected cities and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the 2025 Put Us on the Map Challenge!

• Expanding our city definitions to include 43 ‘Census Designated Places’

• Adding 35 formerly redlined cities to support an exciting new mapping feature coming to the site soon

• Increasing data representation for Hawaii by adding the three biggest island communities besides Honolulu

3. Developed 3 worksheets on using data locally Through a partnership with the Reinvestment Fund, we have spent the past year working closely with a cohort of ten cities from across the country. To support this work (and cities nationwide), we’ve developed a suite of easy-to-use worksheets that provide a step-by-step guide to help local governments use data. Blending strategic and pragmatic approaches to local-level data, these “data worksheets” guide cities through:

• Choosing the right data source (and learning which questions to ask)

• Clarifying if the data addresses the issue of interest

• Using data to identify potential stakeholders to partner with to increase capacity and meet goals

• Evaluating effectiveness and impact

Explore them here:

• Interactive City Health Dashboard Worksheet

• Data Decision Making Assessment

• Team Goal Setting

4. 3 new measures 2024 was a busy year for new metrics. Reflecting public health trends and emerging city priorities, we added 3 metrics to the Dashboard: Independent Living Difficulty, Voter Turnout, and Youth Not in Work or School. 5. 4 new ‘Impact Stories’ We are committed to routinely adding local examples of how cities and organizations across the country use the Dashboard to engage their communities, drive investment, build data capacity, and more. We worked with four cities this year – Maplewood, NJ, Nacogdoches, TX, Decatur, GA, and Stafford, NJ – to capture their Dashboard Impact Stories. We hope these use cases will help illuminate what’s possible in your community through using the City Health Dashboard.

6. Updated data for 38 metrics We regularly update our data as the underlying source datasets are refreshed to help cities and communities across the country stay up-to-date with accurate, timely data about health and factors that shape health. By doing so we help cities and local communities across the country identify challenges and create actionable solutions towards health and equity. In 2024 we updated 38 of our 43 measures to the most recent year (and sometimes month) of data available.

7. Partnered with 70+ cities on their data-to-action priorities Through participation in the National League of Cities’ Capstone Challenge and Healthy Housing Innovation Cohort, and the Dashboard’s own Put Us on the Map Challenge and Data Challenge, we’ve worked side-by-side with over 70 cities in 2024. These many opportunities to hear directly from users about how they use data, including from the Dashboard, what challenges they are tackling, and what their health and equity priorities are. These partnerships have been invaluable for our team. We look forward to continuing these partnerships and developing relationships with more cities in 2025. 8. 350,000 Users (and counting) This year we tallied our 350,000th City Health Dashboard visitor, contributing to over 2.4 million pageviews since our launch in May 2018! 9. Published 3 manuscripts Our team is committed to adding to the knowledge base about urban health, social determinants of health, and spatial epidemiology. To that end we published three manuscripts this year:

• State-Level Firearm Laws and Firearm Homicide in US Cities: Heterogenous Associations by City Characteristics. Kim, B., Thorpe, L.E., Spoer, B.R. et al. State-Level Firearm Laws and Firearm Homicide in US Cities: Heterogenous Associations by City Characteristics. J Urban Health 101, 280–288 (2024).

• Assessing potential benefits of visits to neighborhoods with higher tree canopy coverage using mobility data: Associations with cardiovascular health outcomes in twenty US metropolitan areas. Wei H, Renson A, Huang X, Thorpe LE, Spoer BR, Charles SL. Health Place. 2024 Sep;89:103299. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2024.103299. Epub 2024 Jun 27. PMID: 38936045.

• Associations between 1930s HOLC grades and estimated population burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors in 2020. Wei H, Spoer BR, Titus AR, Lampe TM, Gourevitch MN, Faber JW, Korzeniewski SJ, Bauer SJ, Thorpe LE. PNAS Nexus. 2024 Aug 9;3(8):page 301. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/page301. PMID: 39144914; PMCID: PMC11323776.

10. Added 3 team members The Dashboard is nothing without the smart, passionate, dedicated team that powers all aspects of our project. This year, we were joined by 3 amazing new members–Avalon Aragon, Hedy Ludwig, and Aminata Kaba.

We've also rounded up our 2024 website snapshot. Check out the City Health Dashboard by the numbers:

We are looking forward to 2025 as we continue to build on what we’ve accomplished this past year, launch exciting new initiatives, release new website features, and continue to connect with e users in the year ahead.

Happy holidays from the City Health Dashboard – See you in 2025!