Methodology

The Just Progress tool combines demographic, environmental, and socio-economic data to generate a cumulative index score, referred to as the Just Progress Index. The tool currently utilizes national, publically-available data from the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) and the EPA’s EJScreen tool.

The various inputs into the Just Progress Index are averaged into 2 categories: Pollution Burden and Demographics.

Pollution Burden: health risks arising from proximity and potential exposures to pollution and other adverse environmental conditions

Demographics: sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors that make a community more vulnerable

Pollution Burden average x Demographics average = Just Progress Index

Datasets used in cumulative score

The datasets come from a variety of sources and were selected after considering relevance, availability, recency and quality.

Poverty

What is it?

Percent of a block group's population in households where the household income is less than or equal to twice the federal "poverty level"

Data resolution: Census block group
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau
Data date range: 5-year estimates, 2015-2019

Education (less than high school)

What is it?

Percent of people age 25 or older in a block group whose education is short of a high school diploma

Data resolution: Census block group
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau
Data date range: 5-year estimates, 2015-2019

Linguistic isolation

What is it?

Percent of people in a block group living in linguistically isolated households — a linguistically isolated household is a household in which all members aged 14 years and over speak a non-English language and also speak English less than "very well" (i.e., have difficulty with English)

Data resolution: Census block group
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau
Data date range: 5-year estimates, 2015-2019

Unemployment rate

What is it?

Unemployment rate (people who are unemployed divided by the total population of people in the labor force over 16 years old)

Data resolution: Census block group
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau
Data date range: 5-year estimates, 2015-2019

Housing burden

What is it?

Percent of households in a census tract that are both low income (making less than 80% of the HUD Area Median Family Income) and severely burdened by housing costs (paying greater than 30% of their income to housing costs)

Data resolution: Census block group
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau
Data date range: 5-year estimates, 2015-2019