Other Data Sources with Social Determinants of Health Measures

Key points

  • PLACES includes 9 Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) measures from the American Community Survey.
  • Those and other PLACES health measures can be examined jointly with local-level SDOH measures from other sources for a more comprehensive view of factors influencing health and targeted community planning efforts to improve health.
  • See below for a list of other data sources with SDOH measures, including environmental, transportation, crime, affordability, unemployment, and social vulnerability factors.
Graphic of person with circle of graphics representing wealth, living environment, health, education, and relationships.

Datasets with SDOH measures

Below are information and links to additional datasets with SDOH measures available at the county, place, census tract, and/or ZCTA-levels. This is not an exhaustive list but intended as a resource for data users who are interested in jointly examining PLACES and SDOH measures.

  • Geographic level of data: County.
  • Publisher: Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA).
  • Data: Area Health Resources Files
  • The AHRF data files include data on health care professions, health facilities, population characteristics, economics, health professions training, hospital use, hospital expenditures, and environment.

  • Geographic level of data: County.
  • Publisher: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS).
  • Data: USDA ERS - Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America
  • The Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America provides statistics by broad categories of socioeconomic factors: people, jobs, county classification, income, and veterans.

  • Geographic level of data: State, county, census tract.
  • Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Data: Community Resilience Estimates
  • Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households to absorb, endure, and recover from the health, social, and economic impacts of a disaster such as a hurricane or pandemic. Estimates at the tract and county levels are calculated by modeling individual and household characteristics, including poverty, crowding, and unemployment.

  • Geographic level of data: County.
  • Publisher: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
  • Data: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
  • County Health Rankings & Roadmap is a program that provides data, evidence, guidance, and examples to build awareness of the multiple factors that influence health and support leaders in growing community power to improve health equity.

  • Geographic level of data: State, county, city.
  • Publisher: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
  • Data: Crime Data Explorer (CDE)
  • The CDE provides data on violent and property crime incidents.

  • Geographic level of data: County, census tract, census block group.
  • Publisher: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  • Data: Enterprise Data Catalog
  • The EDG provides access to EPA's Open Data resources, including datasets related to air, water, temperature, precipitation, flood, and environmental justice.

  • Geographic level of data: Census tract.
  • Publisher: CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
  • Data: Environmental Justice Index (EJI)
  • The EJI uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. EPAy, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, and CDC to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract. The EJI ranks each tract on 36 environmental, social, and health factors and groups them into three overarching modules and ten different domains.

  • Geographic level of data: State, county, point.
  • Publisher: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
  • Data: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
  • FARS is a nationwide census providing data regarding motor vehicle traffic crashes with fatal injuries.

  • Geographic level of data: State, county.
  • Publisher: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS).
  • Data: Food Environment Atlas
  • The Atlas provides estimates on three broad categories of food environment factors: (1) food choices (e.g., access and proximity to a grocery store, number of food stores and restaurants); (2) health and well-being (e.g., food insecurity); and (3) community characteristics (e.g., demographic composition; recreation and fitness centers).

  • Geographic level of data: ZCTA.
  • Publisher: CDC/ATSDR
  • Data: Heat and Health Index (HHI)
  • HHI provides ZCTA level data for pre-existing health conditions, sociodemographic factors, and natural and built environment characteristics. It can be used to assess vulnerability to extreme heat.

  • Geographic level of data: Census tract.
  • Publisher: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
  • Data: Local Area Transportation Characteristics for Households (LATCH) Data
  • LATCH data provides average weekday household person-miles traveled, person trips, vehicle-miles traveled and vehicle trips at census tract level.

  • Geographic level of data: State, county, metro area.
  • Publisher: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
  • Data: Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
  • The LAUS portal provides data on unemployment rates by month and 12-month net changes.

  • Geographic level of data: Census tract.
  • Publisher: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
  • Data: Location Affordability Index - HUD Exchange
  • The LAI provides estimates of household housing and transportation costs at the neighborhood-level along with constituent data on the built environment and demographic characteristics.

  • Geographic level of data: County, census tract.
  • Publisher: CDC, National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH).
  • Data: National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network
  • The Tracking Network is a system of integrated health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and city sources.

  • Geographic level of data: County, census tract, ZCTA.
  • Publisher: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
  • Data: Social Determinants of Health Database
  • The beta data files include data that correspond to five key SDOH domains: (1) social context (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, veteran status); (2) economic context (e.g., income, unemployment rate); (3) education; (4) physical infrastructure (e.g., housing, crime, transportation); and (5) health care context (e.g., health insurance).

  • Geographic level of data: County, census tract.
  • Publisher: CDC/ATSDR
  • Data: CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
  • The CDC/ATSDR SVI uses 16 U.S. Census variables to help local officials identify communities that may need support before, during, or after disasters.
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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion