Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project
The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project provides free, accessible resources to use geocoding and area-based social metrics (ABSMs) to improve monitoring of and action to address health inequities.
677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Kresge Building, 7th Floor
Our Work
Our purpose is to offer clear concepts, methods, data, and programming code to improve monitoring of and action to address health inequities, accomplished by using geocoding to link area-based social metrics to public health data.
We offer three sets of resources, all freely accessible
The original Public Health Disparities Geocoding Monograph (2004)
An introduction to geocoding and using area-based socioeconomic measures with public health surveillance data, including a “how to” section and in-depth information about the census tract poverty leve
COVID-19 resources (2020)
Guidance and data to enable using the methods of the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project to monitor COVID-19 Inequities and guide action for health justice.
The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project 2.0 (2022)
Training materials providing information on why & how to analyze population health and health inequities in relation to census tract, county, and other georeferenced societal and environmental data.
Core team
The leader of the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project is Nancy Krieger, PhD, Professor of Social Epidemiology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor, and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The co-leader is Jarvis T. Chen, ScD, Senior Lecturer on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Our research
Our research focuses on improving methods and providing resources for monitoring and analysis of health inequities, accomplished by using geocoding to link area-based social metrics to public health data. By facilitating use of these methods and data, the objective is to inform action for health justice.
Selected publications
Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Rehkopf DH, Subramanian SV. Race/ethnicity, gender, and monitoring socioeconomic gradients in health: a comparison of area-based socioeconomic measures—the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Public Health 2003; 93:1655-1671.
Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Rehkopf DH, Subramanian SV. Painting a truer picture of US socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health inequalities: the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Public Health 2005; 95:312-323.
Krieger N. A century of census tracts: health and the body politic (1906-2006). J Urban Health 2006; 83:355-361.
Krieger N, Waterman PD, Chen JT. COVID-19 and overall mortality inequities in the surge in death rates by ZIP Code characteristics: Massachusetts, January 1 to May 19, 2020. Am J Public Health 2020; 110(12):1850-1852.
Chen JT, Krieger N. Revealing the unequal burden of COVID-19 by income, race/ethnicity, and household crowding: US county vs ZIP code analyses. J Public Health Management Policy 2021; 27(Suppl 1):S43-S56.
Krieger N. The US Census and the people’s health: public health engagement from enslavement and “Indians Not Taxed” to census tracts and health equity (1791-2018). Am J Public Health 2019; 109(8):1092-1101.