PLACES: Local Data for Better Health
PLACES, a collaboration between CDC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation, allows local health departments and jurisdictions regardless of population size and urban-rural status to better understand the burden and geographic distribution of health-related outcomes in their areas and assist them in planning public health interventions.
PLACES provides model-based population-level analysis and community estimates to all counties, places (incorporated and census designated places), census tracts, and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) across the United States.
PLACES is an extension of the original 500 Cities Project that provided city and census tract estimates for chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes, and clinical preventive services use for the 500 largest US cities.
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download icon Go to the PLACES Data Portal to view, search, filter, and download the data by county, place, census tract, or ZCTA to create a custom report, customize visualizations, and more.
- Data in Opendata format: County, Place, Census tract, or ZCTA (each row is one geographic unit with 1 measure)
- Data in GIS-friendly format: County-GIS, Place-GIS, Census tract-GIS, or ZCTA-GIS (each row is one geographic unit with all measures)
usa map icon Compare up to three counties for all measures. Start by selecting one county.
Access the Interactive Map
Across the United States, from small towns to big cities, explore model-based estimates at all of these levels:
- County
- Place
- Census Tract
- ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA)
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*The map application is not accessible for all users. Please visit the PLACES Data Portal to view, search, filter, and download data.
**The map application will not display in Internet Explorer.
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file chart line solid icon Access the 500 Cities Project from 2016 to 2019externexternal icon.
In this 2021 release, we renamed the category Unhealthy Behaviors to Health Risk Behaviors; added a new category titled Health Status; moved the obesity measure from the Unhealthy Behaviors category to the Health Outcomes category; added two new measures, depression among adults aged ≥ 18 years (Health Outcomes category) and fair or poor self-rated health status among adults aged ≥ 18 years (Health Status category); moved 2 measures (mental health not good for ≥ 14 days among adults aged ≥ 18 years, physical health not good for ≥ 14 days among adults aged ≥ 18 years) from the Health Outcomes category to the new Health Status category.
Estimates for New Jersey are not available for measures based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2019. The state did not collect enough BRFSS data to meet the minimum requirements for inclusion in the 2019 annual aggregate data set. However, the 7 measures only available in BRFSS 2018 will be carried over for New Jersey.
Estimates of cholesterol screening for 2017 (provided in the 2020 release) have been revised for all geographic levels. Because of changes in the BRFSS questions related to cholesterol screening, revised estimates are generally higher than estimates previously released. Updated estimates can be downloaded from the data portal or the ArcGIS Online serviceexternal icon.