Celebrating Summer with New Cities, New Data, and More!

It’s summertime! At the City Health Dashboard and we're celebrating the only way we know how - with new cities, new metrics, updated data, and more. Read on to learn what we’ve added in our most recent data release.

Welcoming 130 New Cities to the Dashboard!

This month the Dashboard has reached an important milestone. We are excited to announce that the City Health Dashboard officially provides data for over 1,000 cities nationwide…. 1,103 to be exact!

In this data release, we are adding 130 new cities to the site:

51 Cities joined through the latest ‘Put Us on the Map Challenge’

2024 marks the third year of the Put Us on the Map Challenge, which invites small to midsize cities across the country to apply to join the Dashboard.

This year, we selected 51 cities – with populations ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 – to be “put on the Dashboard’s map” so they can gain access to critical data about health in their communities. These cities are from across the U.S., in 18 different states. Read more about this year’s selected cities.

43 Cities join as new Census Designated Places

In the past, users have emailed us to ask why their city wasn’t on the Dashboard, even though its population was high enough to be included. Most often, their locale turned out to be classified by the Census as a Census Designated Place. Until now, our definition of cities had only included ‘Census Incorporated Places’, so with this release we have expanded our list of cities to include CDPs as well. These 43 added cities, which all have a population of 50,000 or larger, will look the same on the website as all other cities.

35 Cities added to represent historically redlined places

In many US cities, present-day health and socioeconomic disparities, and neighborhood residential segregation, reflect in part the history of redlining. Our team is currently working to add historic redlining maps from the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) to the Dashboard for the approximately 250 cities for which they are available.

Since 35 of these 250 cities were not on the Dashboard, we are adding them now. Stay tuned for exciting new feature updates this fall!

Expanding data representation for Hawaii

The website now includes the biggest island communities in Hawaii (in addition to Honolulu, which was already included) - Hawaii, Kauai, and Lanai. Though the federal government technically designates these as counties, they function in many ways as cities. You can now access data for Hawaii, Kauai, and Lanai, on the Dashboard.

If your city is not yet on the site, let us know by expressing your interest on this form.

New Metrics

Voter Turnout

Social cohesion is becoming more widely recognized as an important factor in community well-being. The value of social connection was underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic and echoed by the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community. Accordingly, the Dashboard has added a new metric, Voter Turnout, which measures the percentage of voting eligible adults who voted in the last general election, and reflects the extent of community engagement within a city. The metric, derived from data provided by the non-partisan entity, L2, will be available at both the city and census tract level for 2020.

Learn more about Voter Turnout and explore this new metric in your city.

Independent Living Difficulty

Since we launched the Dashboard in 2018, users have often requested a disability-related metric. In response we are releasing the Independent Living Difficulty metric. Drawn from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, this metric measures the percentage of adults who report difficulty doing errands alone because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition.

As local leaders assess their city’s accessibility infrastructure or resources to support disabled community members, we hope that this metric can help them understand where needs are greatest. With data spanning from 2015 to 2022, this metric will be available at both the city and neighborhood level.

Learn more about Independent Living Difficulty and explore this new metric in your city.

New Years of Data

This data release introduces new years of data for 22 metrics, including include eleven metrics from the U.S. Census American Community Survey (data through 2022), and seven metrics from the National Vital Statistics System (data through 2021). We’ve also updated our three-monthly measures – ozone and PM2.5 through December 2023, and current unemployment through February 2024.

In addition to providing more current data, these updates allow users to better understand how specific measures evolve over time, providing essential context for policies and programs aimed at addressing these issues.

Updated Racial/Ethnic Categories for City Demographic Tables and Census Tract Maps

In recent years the U.S. Census has changed how its surveys capture race and ethnicity data to better align with how people see themselves. This includes allowing people to identify as being of more than one race, and expanding the available racial/ethnic categories that individuals can choose from. The Dashboard’s demographic maps and tables, available from each city’s City Overview page, have been updated to reflect these changes. We’ve added detailed Central Asian, Central and South American, and NHPI subgroups, including Uzbek, Nicaraguan, Peruvian, and Chukkese. Dashboard data now touch upon 97 race, ethnicity, and age group categories! You can read more about our latest efforts in this area in this blog.

Questions? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected].