CDC Releases New PLACES Data: Local Data for Better Health

CDC’s Division of Population Health released PLACES (Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates) data that includes new years of data across 36 health-related measures. These data can be used to identify and understand health disparities, establish health goals, and target programs and policies where you live. Current smoking among adults aged 18 years or older is one of the health risk behaviors measures. In total, this release includes 36 measures—29 based on Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2021 data and 7 based on 2020 BRFSS data (all teeth lost, dental visits, mammograms, cervical cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, core preventive services among older adults, and sleeping less than 7 hours).

PLACES provides health data for small areas across the country, which public health professionals can use to identify the burden and geographic distribution of health measures in their areas and then focus efforts to create healthier and more equitable communities.

PLACES enables retrieval, visualization, and exploration of uniformly defined local area data in the 50 states and Washington, DC for conditions, behaviors, and risk factors that have a substantial effect on population health.