Data on PHERN

Data is Essential!

Data help us to see the world around us. Using data, Public Health Stewards assess community conditions, monitor incidence of disease and health status, elucidate disparities, and much much more.

Data also drive action. Public Health Stewards use data to inform strategic action to effectively and efficiently improve health and well-being.

This page highlights data resources available on PHERN and beyond.

Find Data on PHERN

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Priority Populations

Priority populations are population groups of interest. They represent a diversity of communities, demographics, identities, statuses, and lived experiences that are–or ought to be–prioritized in our mission to improve the public’s health. Data help us understand who lives in our communities and should be included in efforts to improve community vital conditions.

get demographic data for your county

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Vital Conditions

The communities where people live, work, and play greatly influence health. Vital community conditions are properties of places and institutions that all people need all the time to be healthy and well, for example clean air, fair pay, humane housing, early education, and other necessities. Data help us explore community conditions and drivers of health and well-being.

Get community conditions data for your county

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Public Health Advocacy

Public health advocacy seeks to advance policy solutions, shift practices, and catalyze investments. It takes many forms, including educating the public and informing elected officials about the importance of an issue, program, or need for funding. Data help power our advocacy by deepening our understanding of issues and making the case for actio

get data to power advocacy for your county

More from Community Commons

Community Commons–which powers PHERN–is a publicly accessible, web-based platform that supports change-makers working to advance equitable community health and well-being. The below resources, available from Community Commons, may be helpful for PHERN users.

Foundations for Community Health Data Users

We are often called upon to use various kinds of data in community change work for different circumstances—to assess community conditions, monitor trends, prioritize areas for investment, and more. While today, accessing data is easier than ever, there are still common challenges to using data to inform community health improvement, such as identifying what data are most relevant, accessing high-quality data, data analysis and interpretation, and summarizing and sharing data and results to drive community change. The Foundation for Community Health Data Users series lifts up foundational content to support changemakers exploring and using data to advance equitable well-being.

Community Indicator Library

The Community Indicator Library is a living library of data indicators that change-makers use to measure health, well-being, and equity in their communities.It aims to help users find indicators relevant to their community improvement work, identify datasets and sources for those indicators, and explore related topics on Community Commons. It contains many indicators commonly used in community health practice from sources that make data available nationwide at the county- or Census-tract level, such as the American Community Survey, PLACES, Food Access Research Atlas, and others.