Milken Institute Research Department on GitHub
Community Explorer and COVID-19
The COVID-19 Community Explorer provides a simple way to explore geographic clusters of county-communities affected by the pandemic and their socioeconomic, demographic, and health-related features. More specifically, it clusters 751 variables (behavioral, demographic, economic, and social factors) for 3142 counties into 17 population profiles using machine learning techniques. More details on the Community Explorer
Interactive Map ( Link to Additional Statistics)
These profiles can be summarized as follows:
Mainstream America captures 74% of the U.S. population spread across 819 urban core, suburban, and small metro counties.
1-Urban-Core => Prosperous, ethnically and linguistically diverse large metro areas with substantial disparities between their highly educated (largely White ) and less educated (largely Black or African American) residents (26% of the population)
2-Lower-middle Class => Less populous suburban and small metro counties that are not as economically prosperous as the rest of Mainstream America (18% of the population)
3-Affluent Suburbs => Affluent and more populous (but less diverse) suburban and small metro counties that jointly represent the profile with the highest median income (16% of the population)
4-Middle Class => Middle-class communities with a largely White population that resides in large- to medium-sized suburban and small metro counties (14% of the population)
Industry-driven America captures 17% of the U.S. population spread across 1507 counties in which employment is concentrated in one industry that shapes all aspects of the population's profile.
5-College Towns => College towns with a relatively young, highly educated, and highly geographically mobile population (5.4% of the population)
6-Manufacturing Midwest => Counties primarily located in the Midwest that form the profile with the highest proportion of White population working in the manufacturing sector (5.2% of the population)
7-Low-wage Manufacturing => Low-wage workers in the manufacturing and chemical industries located largely in the South and North-East regions of the country, with an above-average proportion of the population living below the poverty line (4.9% of the population)
11-Hispanic Agriculture => Highly agricultural communities with a higher than average concentration of Hispanic or Latino population residing mostly in the West and South (1.2% of the population)
15-The Great Plains => => Agricultural counties located in the Great Plains with a high proportion of the White population (0.3% of the population)
Graying America captures 5.1% of the U.S. population spread across 424 counties that jointly represent the highest concentration of population of age 65 years or older.
8-Retiree Communities => Retiree communities with adequate household incomes and access to economic resources (4.5% of the population)
13-Isolated Seniors => Isolated seniors with high disability rates and relatively low incomes (0.6% of the population)
Extremely Vulnerable America captures 3.5% of the U.S. population spread across 378 counties that represent the profile with the lowest of levels of income.
9-Hispanic Southern Border => Counties mostly located along the U.S. southern border with a majority of a relatively young Hispanic or Latino population living in extreme poverty (1.4% of the population)
10-Black South => Southern counties with the highest proportion of Black or African American population and lowest median household income of all profiles (1.3% of the population)
12-White Appalachia => White communities in Appalachia with the third-highest level of unemployment rates and second-lowest household income of all profiles (0.7% of the U.S. population)
16-American Indian Reservations => American Indian Reservation communities living in extreme poverty with more than one-third of the population with income below the poverty line (0.1% of the population)
Noncontiguous America captures 0.42% of the U.S. population spread across 14 counties that combine all Hawaiian and nine Alaskan counties.
14-Hawaii => The Aloha State with high racial and ethnic diversity, high income, and relatively low-income inequality (0.4% of the population)
17-Native Alaskan => Alaskan communities with large economic gaps between the White and Alaska Native populations (0.02% of the population)
BRFSS, CDC's Diabetes Surveillance System, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings, United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings, Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Agriculture.
List of Health Conditions
• Adult Obesity: Adult obesity prevalence (%)
• Adult Smoking: Rate of smoking adults (%)
• Air Pollution Levels: Average daily density of fine particulate matter in micrograms per cubic meter (PM2.5)
• Asthma Among 65 and Older: Asthma prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Chronic Kidney Disease Among 65 and Older: Chronic Kidney Disease prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Diabetes Among 65 and Older: Diabetes prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Diabetes Prevalence: Diabetes prevalence (%) • Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia prevalence (%)
• Excessive Drinking: Percentage of adults reporting binge or heavy drinking
• Food Environment Index: Index of factors that contribute to a healthy food environment
• Food Insecurity Prevalence: Percentage of population who lack adequate access to food
• Frequent Mental Distress: Percentage of adults reporting 14 or more days of poor mental health per month
• Frequent Physical Distress: Percentage of adults reporting 14 or more days of poor physical health per month
• Heart Failure Among 65 and Older: Heart Failure prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Hypertension Among 65 and Older: Hypertension prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Ischemic Heart Disease among 65 and Older: Ischemic Heart Disease prevalence (%) among 65 and older
• Limited Access to Healthy Foods: Percentage of population who are low-income and do not live close to a grocery store
• Physical Inactivity: Percentage of adults age 20 and over reporting no leisure-time physical activity
• Poor Mental Health Days: Average number of mentally unhealthy days (#)
• Social Association Rate: Number of membership associations per 10,000 population
• Stroke Among 65 and Older: Stroke prevalence (%) among 65 and older
Related Projects
- The Community Explorer (17 profiles based on 751 factors)- The Community Explorer: Informing Policy with County-Level Data
- COVID-19 Community Explorer(8 profiles based on 26 factors)
- Weighing Down America: 2020 Update
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