Our Most Recent Data Release: New SNAP Metric, A New Feature & Updated Data
The Congressional District Health Dashboard is excited to announce our second data release! This release furthers our mission to provide actionable, reliable, and nonpartisan congressional district health data to policymakers and users from diverse sectors. The release includes:
A new SNAP Participation metric
A new Customize an Area Feature
New years of data for 12 metrics
New Metric
SNAP Participation
The Congressional District Health Dashboard is excited to introduce a new SNAP Participation metric. SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is one of the federal government’s primary tools to address food insecurity in the United States. Households participating in SNAP receive money from the government with which they can buy nutritious, low-cost food. SNAP is a frequent focus of federal policy conversations and changes.
SNAP Participation data captures the percentage of households participating in SNAP in the past quarter in each congressional district. This new metric reflects how many households in the general population use the SNAP program, rather than overall need, perceived hardship, or the percentage of the eligible population that participates. This metric is calculated using data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. Learn more about the SNAP Participation metric here.
By enabling deeper analysis of SNAP participation, the new metric offers valuable insights into patterns of food insecurity and a core program addressing it across the country. The addition of this metric can help congressional representatives and staff, food policy advocates, and other stakeholders access reliable SNAP data to inform policy conversations.
New Feature
Customize an Area
Users can now combine groups of census tracts into a customized area to view metric estimates specific to that area.
Imagine you are interested in a specific neighborhood, precinct, school district, catchment area, or other place that is not currently displayed on the Dashboard. This new feature empowers you to knit together adjacent and non-adjacent census tracts to map that place. You can then view area-specific data for any of the Dashboard’s 30+ census tract-level metrics. This feature may be especially valuable for members of Congress and their staff when identifying areas within their districts that need further investment, or it may be of use to organizations serving specific neighborhoods within a district.
We’ve heard from many of the Dashboard’s users that they work in areas that may include multiple census tracts or neighborhoods within districts, or that may cross district boundaries. The Customized Area feature was built to help meet this need.
You can access this feature on the Metric Maps page by clicking on the “Customized Area” tab on the top left corner. You can then select multiple census tracts within and across districts and states. The Dashboard will immediately calculate a population weighted average for your customized area. The video below shows just how easy it is to customize an area. Reference our technical document to learn more about how customized area weighted averages are calculated.
New Years of Data
The Dashboard is excited to add new years of data for 12 metrics from the American Community Survey, which now reflect data collected through 2024.
See below for a full list of metrics with new years of data:
Important Data Updates
Medicaid Enrollment Metric Name Change
Please note that the metric formerly called 'Medicaid Enrollment - % of Total Population' is now presented as 'Medicaid Enrollment.' This new name for the metric will appear across the website, downloadable data, and technical documentation. The metric itself, including the underlying data and analytic methods, are unchanged.
Medicaid Enrollment Scale Bar Color Change
Please note that the colors of the scale bar for Medicaid Enrollment have been switched. Lighter colors now indicate lower values, and darker colors indicate higher values. What this means is that lighter purple now signals a lower percentage of Medicaid enrollment, and darker purple signals a higher percentage of Medicaid enrollment.
Breast Cancer Deaths Data Update
Due to changes in calculation methods for our Breast Cancer Deaths metric, estimates may now be different from estimates previously shown on our site. We advise against comparing these updated metric estimates to estimates you may have downloaded or used in the past.
Connect with Us
We are hosting our next Virtual Office Hours on Tuesday, May 19th at 4pm EST/1pm PST, where we will be walking through the new updates. Register today.
