Health Data
Data resources for analysis of the many factors that shape health in communities.
Data are a powerful tool for helping lawmakers, advocates, journalists, and others identify priorities and drive action.
Congressional District Health Dashboard
The Congressional District Health Dashboard (CDHD) is a new online tool that provides critical health data for all 435 congressional districts and the District of Columbia. Created by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Dashboard incorporates 36 key measures of health, such as deaths from cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, along with conditions that affect health, like housing affordability and access to nutritious foods.
Until now, most of these data were not available at the congressional district level, nor were they compiled in a single location or easily available to the public.
Where we live has a profound impact on how long and how well we live. Data can illuminate where some people and places are cut off from nutritious food, good schools, stable and affordable homes--and other conditions that shape health. RWJF supports multiple efforts to provide community leaders and residents with local health data, as well as data about the drivers of health at the state, county, city and census tract levels. These data resources allow communities to uncover health challenges, better target resources, and measure progress toward ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to achieve good health.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious gaps in our health data systems. We must modernize these systems putting equity at their core, so that public health crises do not harm some people more than others because of their race or ethnicity, what they earn, and where they live. We work with our partners to address systems-level challenges, including how data are collected, shared, and broken down by age, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, neighborhood, and other factors. When used properly, data can help us identify and address barriers that perpetuate structural racism in America.