The health of America's ZIP codes
A map-first atlas of 26 health and social-need measures across 32,409 ZIP/ZCTA areas — chronic disease, behavioral risk, mental health, access, and health-related social needs, each set against the national average, ACS context, and the neighborhood deprivation gradient.
Opens the ZIP's profile on the interactive map.
Estimates are CDC PLACES-style and model-based; associations are ecological, not causal.
Place shapes health — and the gaps are large.
About 20.2M people live in ZIP codes where diabetes exceeds the high-burden threshold of 17.4%. The most-deprived tenth of neighborhoods averages 8.8 points higher than the least-deprived tenth. The atlas lets you see that gradient for every measure, and find where it is widest.
Search, map, and compare.
Find your ZIP
Type any 5-digit ZIP for its health snapshot — a composite score plus every measure placed against local demographics, your state, and the nation.
Open a snapshot →Explore the map
A national choropleth recolors instantly as you switch measures and view modes — rate, gap-vs-U.S., or percentile — with a live legend and distribution.
Open the atlas →Read the method
Transparent about modeled estimates, tract-to-ZCTA backfill, the ZIP-vs-ZCTA distinction, missingness, and the limits of ecological data.
Methods & limits →What the data teaches, not just what it shows.
A single statistical axis explains 57% of how ZIP codes differ across all 26 measures — and it tracks income and deprivation, not any one disease. Four data-driven essays unpack the structure behind the map.
Most of ZIP-code health is one axis
Run a principal component analysis on all 26 measures and a single dimension — tracking deprivation and income, not any one disease — explains the majority of the variation between America's ZIP codes.
Read the story →Correlation structureNo measure moves alone
Diabetes predicts blood pressure. Food insecurity predicts housing insecurity at ρ ≈ 0.97. The 26 measures form tight blocks — and the blocks track demographics more than medicine.
Read the story →Community archetypesThe four health Americas
Cluster ZIP codes on all 26 measures at once and four recognizable kinds of community emerge — comfortable suburbs, young metro strivers, aging small towns, and left-behind communities.
Read the story →The deprivation gradientWhere the gradient bites — and where it doesn't
Complete tooth loss is three times higher in the most-deprived tenth of neighborhoods. Binge drinking is the one measure that runs the other way.
Read the story →The wealth gradientThe health premium of wealthy ZIP codes
Rank ZIP/ZCTA areas by a composite of income, college attainment, home value, ADI, poverty, and unemployment, then compare the richest tenth with the poorest tenth across all 26 health measures.
Read the story →Outcome story · mental healthDistress follows poverty. Diagnosis follows privilege.
Frequent mental distress tracks deprivation closely; diagnosed depression barely does. The gap between the two — diagnoses per unit of distress — rises with income and falls sharply where more residents are Black.
Read the story →Outcome story · smokingSmoking: deprivation predicts it, culture bends it
No measure tracks neighborhood deprivation more tightly than smoking (ρ = 0.80). Subtract that prediction and what remains is a map of history: the tobacco belt, Utah, and the casino frontier.
Read the story →26 measures, from cardiometabolic risk to social needs.
Every measure carries its label, unit, source, national benchmark, missingness, and direction. Jump straight to any of them on the map.
Area-level data, read with care.
ZIP vs. ZCTA.Census ZCTAs are generalized areal representations of USPS ZIP Code service areas — not official delivery boundaries. The app says “ZIP/ZCTA” for readability.
Modeled & ecological. Outcomes are CDC PLACES-style model-based estimates, not direct counts. ZIP-level associations describe places, not individuals, and do not imply causation. See the methods and sources.