Environmental Justice

Ozone Days Above Regulatory Standard (Monitor + Modeled) (Monitor only)
The number of days in which the daily maximum 8-hour average ozone concentration exceeds a standard provides an indication of short-term spikes in ozone concentrations. This may give you an idea of how many days per year you may be exposed to unhealthy levels of ozone.

PM_2.5 – Days Above Regulatory Standard (Monitor + Modeled) (Monitor only)
These data help summarize short-term trends in particle pollution concentrations. This may give you an idea of how many days per year you may be exposed to unhealthy levels of particulate matter.

Annual PM_2.5 – Level (Monitor + Modeled) (Monitor only)
These data help summarize long-term trends in particle pollution concentrations. This will give you an idea of what the yearly level of PM2.5 is in an area.

Air Toxics
Data from EPA’s National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) are used to develop the air toxics indicators for the Tracking Network. Air toxics measures can be used to

• prioritize emission sources as potential targets for risk reduction activities and further study,
• identify locations of interest for further investigation, and
• show the geographic distribution of air toxics.

Click to view air quality data.

Asthma Prevalence among Children
Prevalence estimates are organized by different variables to estimate the number of people with asthma in different time periods and geographic areas, such as states and counties.

Emergency Department Visits for Asthma
This indicator estimates the number and rate of emergency department visits for asthma. These data can be used to identify trends and patterns of emergency department visits over time and in different geographic areas, such as states and counties.

Hospitalizations for Asthma
This indicator can be used to identify trends and patterns in the occurrence of asthma hospitalizations across time and space

Click to view asthma data.

Cancer Incidence
Incidence is the number of new cases of illness occurring within a specific population over a period of time. For some cancers, the data can also be aggregated over five years. Data are available for most states, depending on the type of cancer and the year. Some cancer types have data at the county level. Under advanced options, cancer data can be further refined by sex and race/ethnicity.

Click to view cancer data.

Age of Housing
This indicator uses census data to provide information about the number of homes built before 1950 and homes built from 1950-1979. Living in an older home is one risk factor that can contribute to higher blood lead levels in children. Census data do not account for the number of older houses that have been renovated or have had lead removed; and this indicator does not consider other sources of lead in the community.

Click to view childhood lead poisoning data.

The climate change datasets can be used to better understand how changes in temperature and precipitation and occurrence of heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires can influence human health.

Households
This indicator provides information about the housing units within a community. It includes the total number of housing units, as well as the number and percent of housing units with 10 or more units, more people than rooms, and no vehicle available. In addition, you can find the number and percent of vacant housing units, renter-occupied housing, and mobile homes. Also included are data on the number and percent of the population living in group quarters. Census tract, county, and state level data are available.

Internet Access
This indicator provides information about internet access. It includes number and percent of people with access to computer with internet (but no cell phone). It also includes the and number and percent of households with smartphones, households with a smartphone but no other device, and households with no internet access. In addition, you can find number and percent of people who have a computer without an internet subscription, with different age, income, and education options. Census tract, county, and state level data are available.

Medical Infrastructure
This indicator provides county-level data on the numbers of hospitals, numbers of hospital beds, percentage of hospitals located within a flood hazard area, and percentage of hospital beds located within a flood hazard area. These data can be used to identify community vulnerabilities, plan resource needs, and inform disaster preparedness efforts.

Click to view community characteristics data.

Access to Parks and Schools
This data estimates the number or percentage of people living within a half mile of a park or a public school.

Proximity of Populations to Schools and Highways
This indicator displays the number and percent of public schools located within 150m of a highway. It also displays the number of people and percentage of a population living withing 150m of a highway.

Click to view community design data.

Regulated Drinking Water Contaminants
This indicator shows the distribution of level of contaminant in finished drinking water, Potential for exposure to the contaminant in finished drinking water, and the Level of contaminant in finished drinking water.

Unregulated Drinking Water Contaminants
This indicator provides information on the water systems where PFAS chemicals and perchlorate were detected, and where the two chemicals with the EPA health advisory (PFOA and PFOS) were found in exceedance of that level. The measures also provide information on the water systems where samples were taken and no chemicals were detected.

Click to view drinking water data.

Environmental Quality Index (EQI)

This indicator presents data from five individual domains (air, water, land, built environment, and sociodemographics) plus a combination of the five domains (overall environmental quality index) to provide a snapshot of environmental quality for all counties across the United States. Low index scores indicate higher environmental quality, and higher index scores mean lower environmental quality. The source for these data is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Heart Attack Hospitalizations
This indicator uses data collected by hospitals and estimates the number and rate of people who were admitted to the hospital due to heart attack. It can be used to identify trends and patterns in hospitalizations due to heart attacks. The data are organized by different variables to help estimate the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks. The variables include time periods, age groups, gender, and geographic areas such as states and counties.

Heart Disease Mortality
These indicators used data collected by vital records from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Data can be used to identify trends in the mortality of heart disease (heart attack, coronary heart disease). The variables include time periods, age groups, sex, race/ethnicity, and geographic areas such as states and counties.

Click to view heart disease and stroke data.

Heat Stress Emergency Department Visits
This indicator estimates the number and rate of emergency department visits for heat stress. It includes all cases where heat stress is listed as a primary or other diagnosis.

Heat Stress Hospitalizations
This indicator estimates the number and rate of hospitalizations for heat stress. It includes all cases where heat stress is listed as a primary or other diagnosis.

Heat-Related Mortality
This indicator is based on data from death certificates to evaluate deaths that have identified heat as an underlying or contributing cause.

Heat Vulnerability
This indicator includes measures that may make people at greater risk for heat-related health effects. These measures are diabetes, heart disease, poverty, race, advanced age, social isolation, disabilities, population density, forest canopy, developed land use, and cultivated crop land use.

Click to view heat and heat-related illness data.

Demographics
This indicator includes population estimates (number and percent) of people by race, ethnicity, age, gender, single-parent households, speaking English less than “very well’, and aged 65 years and older and living alone. Data are presented at Census tract, county, and/or state level for all states.

Life Expectancy at Birth
This indicator shows the average annual life expectancy at birth for a population over a 5-year period. Data are presented at county and state level for all states. These data are estimates and cannot be used to predict an individual’s life span.

Social Vulnerability Index
This indicator shows relative vulnerability of every U.S. Census tract on 14 social factors including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing. The factors are grouped into four related themes. Each Census tract receives a ranking for each variable, each theme, and an overall ranking. These data can be used by public health officials and local planners to better prepare communities to respond to emergency events like severe weather, floods, disease outbreaks, or chemical exposure. Depending on the year, data are available at the Census tract and county level for all states.

Socioeconomic Status
This indicator includes data on poverty, household income, employment status, and high school (or equivalent) graduation status. Data are presented at Census tract, county, and/or state level for all states.

Click to view populations and vulnerabilities data.

Flood Vulnerability
This indicator provides county-level estimates on the total area and percentage of total areas within a flood hazard zone, as well as the number of residents and housing units per county in a 100-year flood zone. The data use flood hazard risk areas defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Click to view precipitation and flooding data.

Prematurity among Singleton Births
This indicator tracks the occurrence of premature single births. This indicator can be used to identify trends and patterns in premature births. It can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of public health actions and interventions for preventing prematurity. These data are available at the state and county level.

Low Birthweight among Singleton Births
This indicator tracks the occurrence of low birth weight (LBW) among full-term, single birth newborns. It can be used to track the perinatal health because LBW is an important predictor of perinatal morbidity and mortality. It can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of public health actions and interventions for preventing LBW. Baseline data can be used to monitor changes or trends. These data are available at the state and county (or census tract at state level where appropriate) level.

Infant Mortality
This indicator helps to identify populations with higher rates of infant mortality for all infants (under 1 year of age), neonates (infants younger than 28 days), perinates (infants at 28 weeks gestation to younger than 7 days old), and post-neonates (infants aged 28 days to < 1 year). These data can be used to assist with targeting outreach intervention activities. It can also be used to improve our understanding of geographic variation, time trends, and demographic patterns of infant death. These data are available at the state and county level.

Click to view reproductive and birth outcomes data.