Social Determinants of Health for Rural People – Resources

High Need Mapping Tool
Interactive map highlighting various social determinants of health indices with Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Health Center and grants data. Data can be viewed by HRSA Region or county.
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Populations at Risk
Tool offering downloadable socioeconomic reports covering age, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, language proficiency, poverty, assistance programs, employment, and housing. Includes ability to compare locations by census tract, city, county, state, tribal, metropolitan, and nonmetropolitan areas.
Sponsoring organization: Headwaters Economics
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Pathways to Equity Rural Health Roadmap
Outlines a roadmap for rural health organizations to improve health equity in their communities. Includes guidance on building trust, forming a health equity team, assessing health risks, developing strategies and collaborations, and taking action.
Sponsoring organization: Pathways to Public Health Equity
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The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index
Interactive map of 184 indicators identifying climate vulnerability in health, social determinants of health, environment, and infrastructure at the state, county, and census tract levels.
Sponsoring organizations: Darkhorse Analytics, Environmental Defense Fund, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University
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ClimaWATCH (Climate and Weather Analytics, Trends, and Community Health)
Examines the impact of heat waves, based on data from Medicaid beneficiaries on healthcare utilization and spending. Includes information at the national, state, and county levels. Offers interactive maps and charts that show heat waves, excess healthcare use and spending due to heat, and more. Identifies communities most affected by heat waves using different metrics.
Sponsoring organization: Mathematica
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SparkMap's Community Assessment Tool
Allows user to select data indicators such as demographics, economics, housing, education, health behaviors and indicators, healthcare workforce, and more by state and county to create a community assessment report. Utilizes data from multiple geographical levels and housed with the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Transportation, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Sponsoring organization: Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems
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Poverty Area Measures
Provides access to poverty area measures for counties and census tracts covering high poverty, extreme poverty, persistent poverty, and enduring poverty. Includes Decennial Census data for 1960 (county) or 1970 (census tract) through 2000 and for American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year periods of 2007-11, 2017-21, 2018-2022, and 2019-2023. Available in spreadsheet format.
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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Housing Solutions Matchmaker Tool
An interactive county-level U.S. map that shows housing affordability by high, moderate, or low cost as well as by growing or shrinking population. Allows user to select county for additional information such as population changes, median income, median home value and rental costs, housing quality, and policy recommendations for strategies to address housing issues.
Sponsoring organizations: Aspen Institute, Brookings Metro, National Association of Counties
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Rural Health Literacy Toolkit
Resources and best practices to develop programs to improve personal and organizational health literacy in rural communities. Identifies program models and examples, and discusses implementation, evaluation, sustainability, and dissemination of program results.
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Social Determinants of Health Database
Provides data files reflecting social determinants of health (SDOH) variables, including social context, economic context, education, physical infrastructure, and healthcare context that is linkable by county, zip code, or census tract. Data are curated from federal and other public datasets.
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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