Congressional Districts and Health: What Can Be Measured?

The Congressional Health District Dashboard gives a snapshot of critical health data for all 435 congressional districts and the District of Columbia on 36 key measures of health.

As we work for a healthier future for all, the Congressional District Health Dashboard provides a way for policymakers and advocates to identify opportunities and challenges affecting the health and wellbeing of all people across congressional districts. When it comes to measuring and improving health, it is often difficult for policymakers to find rigorous and unbiased data that shows the challenges that their constituents face.

That is no longer the case. The Congressional District Health Dashboard is a new online tool created by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The Dashboard provides a way for policymakers and advocates to identify opportunities and challenges affecting the health and wellbeing of all people across congressional districts.

This tool gives a snapshot of critical health data for all 435 congressional districts and the District of Columbia on 36 key measures of health, such as deaths from cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, along with conditions that affect health, like housing affordability or 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 for easy access to the public.

The Congressional District Health Dashboard enables users to:

• Explore rigorous, nonpartisan data on health, education, poverty, and more by congressional district.
• Identify racial, ethnic, geographic, and other disparities in health and factors that influence health across congressional districts.
• View any congressional district’s snapshot, with all 36 measures compared to state and national averages, along with district-specific population facts like age and racial/ethnic makeup.

Overseen and regularly updated by a team of population health and policy experts, epidemiologists, and geospatial specialists, the Congressional District Health Dashboard website displays measures and drivers of health through interactive maps, tables, and charts. Data are drawn from federal sources and other datasets that adhere to rigorous standards of data collection and analysis, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency.