The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (Health Department) has introduced a new online Racial and Health Equity Data Hub, designed to provide an overview of the health status of Long Beach residents across different racial and ethnic groups. This interactive platform will utilize health data to address community challenges and promote health equity throughout the city.
“We are committed to working with our communities to advance health equity through accessible, critical data,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in a public statement. “The new Racial and Health Equity Data Hub will help us better understand Long Beach’s needs by tracking health disparities and identifying areas for action as we collectively shape important health initiatives.”
The Data Hub offers tools for residents to explore how various social determinants of health—such as education, housing, public safety, and access to nutritious food—impact health outcomes in the community. These factors influence health, daily functioning, and quality of life for individuals. The goal is to use this data to improve these conditions across Long Beach’s diverse neighborhoods.
The platform includes data on chronic diseases, communicable diseases, maternal and child health, and mental health, as well as factors such as economic equity, housing and homelessness. It allows users to view this information by race/ethnicity, gender, geography, and year.
The hub consolidates several other health-related City dashboards, including those for the Long Beach Recovery Act, Community Health Assessment, HIV Data, Homelessness, and Community Crisis Response.
The Data Hub will eventually integrate data from ongoing community needs assessments for the Cambodian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Black, and LGBTQ+ populations, providing a more comprehensive look at the needs of Long Beach’s diverse communities.
“When we talk about improving the health of Long Beach residents, we need to look at the whole picture,” Health and Human Services Director Alison King said in a public statement. “This new data hub allows us to analyze trends over time, which, in turn, helps inform policy so we can improve outcomes.”
The data provided in the hub is drawn from reliable sources, such as the Big Cities Health Data Inventory, the American Community Survey, National Equity Atlas, and the CDC’s PLACES datasets, with information available up to 2021.
