Research Guides: Social Explorer: Using the Social Explorer Database: Public Health

Getting Started

Public Health

This page contains a curated list of maps, datasets, and teach and learn modules useful in public health-related courses. This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a starting point for you to explore all that Social Explorer has to offer.

As always, if you need help please visit our help center or feel free to contact us!

Teach and Learn Modules

Teach & Learn Modules for Courses

Use these resources created by Social Explorer to inspire creativity, encourage hands-on learning, and equip your students with desired skills. Here are some suggested modules to get you started. To explore the entire library of activities, click here!

A Glimpse of Mentally Unhealthy Days in the U.S. in 2020
This module explores that segment of the U.S. population which experienced mentally unhealthy days per month and presents differences in that data between 2019 and 2020.
Changes in Cigarette Smoking and Excessive Drinking Across U.S. Counties, 2010-2020
This module examines changes in adult cigarette usage and binge drinking behaviors from 2010 - 2020.
Distress in the U.S. - Part 1: Exploring the Dark Side of Our Lives
This module visualizes and examines mental health-related issues in the United States.
Distress in the U.S. - Part 2: The Light at the End of the Tunnel
This module explores visualizations of protective mental health support and practices in the United States.
Exploring Health Conditions in the United States
This module shows users how to explore changes in various health conditions over the years as a means of answering related research questions.
Health and Education
This module explores whether education can improve opportunities for better health.
Mapping Regional Health Inequalities
This module examines regional patterns in health inequalities, with a focus on low birth weight, child mortality, and excess mortality. The module also discusses the intersection of health inequalities with broader socioeconomic inequalities.
Mental Health: "I'm not in a 'good place' today."
A visualization of the number of mentally unhealthy days per month.
Physical and Mental Health
This module employs U.S. census data to explore rates of obesity and its contributing factors.
Regional Patterns and Changes in Reported Poor Mental and Physical Health
This module examines changes and regional variations in reported physical and mental health, with a focus on social and economic consequences of these differences.

Need Help?

Maps

Curated Maps for Public Health

Use Social Explorer maps to visualize and analyze the characteristics of almost any location, like voting, poverty, aging populations, ethnicity and race, spending patterns, health indicators, crime, environment or education. You can see trends and make comparisons over time and place to gain insights and help make decisions.

For an introduction to how to use Social Explorer Maps, start with this video tutorial. There are videos that explain how to browse available datasets, customize your map, compare variables and notice trends, export and share your projects, and even tips for how to tell stories using your data.

When you're ready, click on one of the example maps below to get started, or access the complete set of maps here. Also, don't be afraid to explore! You can always save your variables to go back to later.

U.S. COVID-19 Data
This daily updated dataset allows you to explore and visualize COVID-19 data across the United States at the state, county, and MSA levels. Track the cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths, the growth rate of the virus, the number of negative and positive tests, and much more on one convenient map. With daily updates and data provided by The New York Times and The COVID Tracking Project, explore reliable and accurate data every day with this new dataset.
U.S. Cancer Data
CDC Cancer Data provides insights into the distribution of cancer mortality across U.S. counties for major types of cancer. Data was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
U.S. Health Data
Explore vital health factors such as access to health care, obesity, smoking, excessive drinking and others in nearly every county in United States. The presented data comes from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program (2010 - 2016).
United States
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys and many other datasets. Data indicators include education, housing, employment, poverty, population, and health.
World Development Indicators
Collected by The World Bank, World Development Indicators allow you to visualize, explore, and compare data indicators for almost every country in the world, or switch to a geographic region level for a summarized preview. Data points include factors related to mortality, health, and aid.

Datasets

Datasets

Social Explorer allows you to quickly and easily create and manage reports for one or thousands of variables and geographies. You can also download data for further processing. To get started:

This guide will show you how to create, save and share, and download a report
To access the complete list of available datasets and build your own reports, click here.
Check out the example datasets below
For more detailed information on each dataset, reference the data dictionary

Community Resilience Estimates
Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb, endure, and recover from the impacts of a disaster. The Community Resilience Estimates are experimental estimates produced using information on individuals and households from the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) and the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program as well as publicly available health condition rates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
Coronavirus Case Data
Provided by The New York Times, this dataset includes cumulative counts of reported cases in the U.S. at the state and county levels over time.
COVID-19 Insights
Provided by The New York Times, this dataset includes the cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths available as reported each day at the state and county level, over time.
U.S. Cancer Data
Explore cancer data that originates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). These reports provide information about death rates due to different types of cancers at the U.S. county and state levels.
U.S. Health Data
This dataset includes mental-health related indicators including co-morbidities such as alcohol and tobacco use, availability of mental health providers by geographic area, insurance access, access to exercise opportunities, food environment index, and more. Annual data releases available from 2010 - 2020.
World Development Indicators (World Bank)
World Development Indicators collected by World Bank are comprised of diverse demographic and socioeconomic data categories available for individual world countries, as well as geographic and income level regions. Health-related data points include life expectancy, birth and death rates, infant and maternal mortality, adult mortality, prevalence of HIV, health expenditure, and more.