Introducing the Updated District Density Scale
Developed by the Congressional District Health Dashboard for the 119th Congress (2025-2026)
Congressional districts (CDs) vary in many ways, including the extent to which they are located in an urban or rural area, or an area that falls between these categories. To help capture this important difference between districts, the Dashboard team in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine created a District Density Scale for the 119th Congress, an update from the District Density Index for the 118th Congress.
For this update, the team grouped each congressional district into one of four categories. The categories are based on how much of the CD population lives in neighborhoods with different household densities (number of households per square mile).
Predominantly Rural (lowest category of CD household density)
Rural-Suburban Mix
Urban-Suburban Mix
Predominantly Urban (highest category of CD household density)
The graphic below shows the percentage of districts assigned to each category of the District Density Scale for the 119th Congress.
The maps below show how the District Density Scale is distributed across the U.S. The first map uses the 119th Congress’s actual boundaries. Looking at this map, you may conclude that most CDs across the country are in the ‘Predominantly Rural’ category. Even though all CDs have a similar population size, urban districts tend to be physically smaller (but denser), sometimes too small to see on a national map. The second map presents all CDs as the same size, which allows us to see the full urban to rural spectrum across the country.
This downloadable Excel file contains the District Density Scale categories for every congressional district in the 119th Congress.
The Congressional District Health Dashboard offers several ways to characterize individual districts and compare districts to each other or to national and state trends. By assigning congressional districts to one of four household density categories, the District Density Scale provides a valuable tool to understand and interpret differences in health and drivers of health across the country at the CD level.
Congressional districts can be a difficult geography to understand. Single districts often contain diverse communities, sometimes large geographic areas, and their boundaries can be redrawn. The District Density Scale uses the readily understood concept of household density to offer a lens through which one can analyze national trends across CDs.
Analyzing Dashboard Metrics Using the District Density Scale
Using the District Density Scale, website users can identify in which areas along the urban-to-suburban-to-rural spectrum needs are particularly pressing, and where there is alignment in the types of challenges or opportunities for resource investment among urban, suburban, and rural areas.
The District Density Scale can reveal new insights. The graphic below highlights variation by district density for several often-viewed Dashboard metrics: Medicaid Enrollment, Food Insecurity, Children in Poverty, Diabetes, and Opioid Overdose Deaths.
Analyzing district density trends for Dashboard metrics can support policymaking efforts by helping with priority-setting, using data as a common starting point. For users interested in using district density in analyses, Dashboard metric data are available to download here.
Click this link to download an Excel file with the District Density Scale categories for every congressional district in the 119th Congress.
To learn more about our methods for the new District Density Scale, explore the technical overview.
Questions? Please reach out to us at [email protected].