CT Open Data Guide: Health and Environment

DataHaven Resources

Some of our most popular resources for health and environmental data include:

1. DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey - surveys of over 35,000 randomly-selected adults throughout CT; questions related to public health, social determinants of health, and health care access provide local-level data about Connecticut communities that are not available from any other source.

2. Greater New Haven Community Index, Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index, Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index - and other data reports that DataHaven has published in recent years. These can be found in the Reports section of the DataHaven website, and several of them also serve as Community Health Needs Assessments for hospitals located throughout Connecticut.

3. DataHaven Community and Neighborhood Profiles - by area, town and neighborhood. Please contact us if you can't find the profile you need.

4. DataHaven Connecticut Town Equity Reports - more detailed reports and maps for all 169 towns in Connecticut, focusing on local differences in equity and well-being.

COVID-19 data in Connecticut

1. Our trusted sources of COVID-19 information page provides an overview.

Some of our favorite outside sources of health and environmental data

1. Datasets available from CMS and other Federal agencies. Charles Ornstein at ProPublica maintains a guide, a copy of which (as of December 2016) is posted here: http://ctdatahaven.org/data-resources/new-ecosystem-health-data-keeps-getting-bigger-tipsheet-public-health-datasets

2. County Health Rankings: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/ The County Health Rankings are a key component of the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project. MATCH is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The web site provides access to the 50 state reports, ranking each county within the 50 states according to its health outcomes and the multiple health factors that determine a county’s health. Each county receives a summary rank for its health outcomes and health factors and also for the four different types of health factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment. Each county can also drill down to see specific county-level data (as well as state benchmarks) for the measures upon which the rankings are based.

3. CT Department of Public Health: Vital Statistics Reports https://portal.ct.gov/dph/health-information-systems--reporting/hisrhome.... The Office of Vital Records at the Connecticut Department of Public Health maintains a statewide registry of births, marriages, civil unions, deaths and fetal deaths which have occurred in CT or to CT residents. Vital Records databases are analyzed annually to create statistical reports, known as Registration Reports, for births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and divorces.

4. Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index https://news.gallup.com/topic/well_being_index.aspx. Explore results by U.S. metropolitan area for overall wellbeing by five elements: career, social, financial, community, and physical based on 2017, 2018 Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index data.

5. National Vital Statistics Reports (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm. Tables of vital statistics by state and population groups, including preliminary data on births.

6. Report: Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Low Birthweight for Connecticut (CTDPH Health Disparities Workgroup, 2008)  Report on the infant health disparity between minority groups and non-Hispanic Whites. Recommends improved services plus development of measures for addressing psychosocial factors in women’s lives.

7. CT Department of Public Health: Connecticut Health Disparities Report (2009). Detailed data compendium that describes health disparities within the State.

8. Kids Count, at http://datacenter.kidscount.org/, is a data tool of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It maintains an extensive list of indicators related to demographic, economic, education, health, and community well-being of children. Users can also download publications on various topics related to childhood.

9. Connecticut Voices for Children publishes many reports on early childcare, education, and child health and wellbeing, at http://www.ctvoices.org. Use the filters to browse reports by issue area, contributor, or publication date.

10. Data dot Census dot gov, at https://data.census.gov/ is an online portal to selected U.S. Census Bureau data sets, including those on school enrollment by age, educational attainment, private school enrollment, and other education topics. Please contact DataHaven if you have trouble finding what you need on this expansive site.

11. State of Connecticut Open Data: https://data.ct.gov/, has hosted data on topics related to health and human services, like drug related deaths, medical marijuana registry, and SNAP retailers. These may change over time.

12. CDC’s BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) Prevalence and Trends Tool https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence/. Access state-level data on behavioral risk factors, including alcohol consumption, health-care access, women’s health. Reports for Connecticut can be accessed at https://portal.ct.gov/dph/Health-Information-Systems--Reporting/Hisrhome/Connecticut-Behavioral-Risk-Factor-Surveillance-System-CT-BRFSS.

13. CDC’s Oral Health Data website contains data from Water Fluoridation Reporting System Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), State Oral Health Surveys, Indian Health Service (IHS) Oral Health Surveys and ASTDD’s Annual Synopsis of State Oral Health Programs. https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealthdata/index.html.

14. Connecticut Department of Public Health’s Statistics and Research page https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Communications/Services--Programs/Statistics-and-Research contains data on chronic disease, environmental health, health care equity, health information systems, infectious diseases, maternal & child health, and tumor registry.

15. U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project - USALEEP. "The USALEEP project produced estimates of life expectancy at birth—the average number of years a person can expect to live—for most of the census tracts in the United States for the period 2010-2015." Download data files at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/usaleep/usaleep.html. Analyses also contained within the 2019 DataHaven Community Index reports.

16. 500 Cities data (now known as CDC PLACES). "The 500 Cities project is a collaboration between CDC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation. The purpose of the 500 Cities Project is to provide city- and census tract-level small area estimates for chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes, and clinical preventive service use for the largest 500 cities in the United States. These small area estimates will allow cities and local health departments to better understand the burden and geographic distribution of health-related variables in their jurisdictions, and assist them in planning public health interventions." https://www.cdc.gov/places/index.html. Analysis also available through a DataHaven report.

17. Environmental Protection Agency EnviroAtlas. "EnviroAtlas has 300+ national data layers that cover the contiguous US and an additional 100 community layers for 30 featured community areas. National data layers are frequently based on 30-meter resolution data, while community scale data are derived from 1-meter resolution land cover data for local planning and decision-making." Currently, within Connecticut, local data are available for the New Haven region. See https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-05/documents/newhavenct.pdf for a factsheet. An interactive map is also available at https://enviroatlas.epa.gov/enviroatlas/interactivemap/.

18. Connecticut Environmental Justice Mapping Tool (2023, Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation): "The CT EJ Mapping Tool is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that utilizes GIS data and information to create a wide and consistent dataset that combines environmental, health, socioeconomic and demographic indicators through our maps and reports. This information and the map can provide detailed information on the daily issues and problems that communities face and can lead policymakers and community leaders to address these issues better." https://connecticut.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5adac07c27db40bbabc193af58634e5a 

19. CJEST - Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool (2022, U.S. Council on Environmental Quality) "The tool has an interactive map and uses datasets that are indicators of burdens in eight categories: climate change, energy, health, housing, legacy pollution, transportation, water and wastewater, and workforce development. The tool uses this information to identify communities that are experiencing these burdens." https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/en/ 

View additional data sources, including maps and links to external sources, on our Data Resources page. Or contact us to suggest other sources we should feature.