license	mit
task_categories	tabular-classification feature-extraction
language	en
tags	inequality food-deserts healthcare housing veterans disability education economics gini-coefficient census fips county-level united-states
pretty_name	US Inequality Atlas
size_categories	1K<n<10K

US Inequality Atlas

Live visualization: https://dr.eamer.dev/datavis/inequality-atlas/

County-level inequality data for all ~3,200 US counties, keyed on 5-digit FIPS codes. Covers food deserts, healthcare access, housing affordability, hospital infrastructure, veteran demographics, disability prevalence, income inequality (Gini coefficient), education attainment, unemployment, and poverty depth.

I assembled this from Census ACS, CMS, USDA, and HRSA data for the inequality visualization series at dr.eamer.dev/datavis. Every file uses FIPS codes as the merge key, so you can join any combination.

Part of the Data Trove collection.

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What's Inside

Food Deserts (food_deserts/)

File	Records	Source
food_desert_merged.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2021 + USDA Food Access Atlas 2019
state_rankings.json	50 states	Aggregated state-level rankings
worst_counties.json	Top worst	Counties with highest food desert scores
children_impact.json	--	Child food insecurity indicators
snap_gap_states.json	50 states	SNAP coverage gaps
regional_analysis.json	--	Regional breakdowns
national_summary.json	--	National aggregate stats

Healthcare (healthcare/)

File	Records	Source
healthcare_desert_merged.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 + HRSA HPSA
cms_hospitals_2025.csv	5,421 hospitals	CMS Hospital Compare

Housing (housing/)

File	Records	Source
housing_crisis_merged.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (rent burden, income, units)

Veterans (veterans/)

File	Records	Source
military_firearm_merged_analysis.csv	54 states/territories	Census ACS + CDC + VA
military_firearm_veterans.csv	--	Veteran population by state
military_firearm_ptsd.csv	--	PTSD and mental health indicators
military_firearm_suicide.csv	--	Veteran suicide rates
military_firearm_va_healthcare.csv	--	VA healthcare enrollment
military_firearm_firearms.csv	--	Firearm ownership rates
+ 4 more CSVs with metadata	--	Active duty, FFL, economic impact, spouse employment

Economic (economic/)

File	Records	Source
gini_by_county.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (B19083)
unemployment_by_county.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (B23025)
poverty_depth_by_county.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (C17002)

Education (education/)

File	Records	Source
education_by_county.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (B15003)

Disability (disability/)

File	Records	Source
census_disability_by_county_2022.csv	3,222 counties	Census ACS 2022 (S1810)

CMS Hospitals (cms/)

File	Records	Source
cms_hospitals_20260121.csv	5,421 hospitals	CMS Hospital Compare (Jan 2026 refresh)

Source Data (source/)

File	Size	Description
food_access_atlas_2019.xlsx	82 MB	Raw USDA Food Access Research Atlas (Git LFS)

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FIPS Codes

Every county-level file uses 5-digit FIPS codes as the primary key:

State FIPS (2 digits) + County FIPS (3 digits)
Example: "01001" = Autauga County, Alabama

This means you can merge any combination of datasets:

import pandas as pd

food = pd.read_csv("food_deserts/food_desert_merged.csv", dtype={"fips": str})
health = pd.read_csv("healthcare/healthcare_desert_merged.csv", dtype={"fips": str})
housing = pd.read_csv("housing/housing_crisis_merged.csv", dtype={"fips": str})

merged = food.merge(health, on="fips", suffixes=("_food", "_health"))
merged = merged.merge(housing, on="fips")

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Quick Start

Python

import pandas as pd

# Load any county-level dataset
df = pd.read_csv("food_deserts/food_desert_merged.csv", dtype={"fips": str})

# Worst counties for food access
worst = df.nlargest(20, "poverty_rate")
print(worst[["fips", "name", "poverty_rate", "no_vehicle_pct"]])

D3.js

const data = await d3.csv("healthcare/healthcare_desert_merged.csv");
// FIPS codes ready for choropleth mapping

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Data Sources

Source	Agency	URL
American Community Survey	Census Bureau	data.census.gov
Food Access Research Atlas	USDA ERS	ers.usda.gov
Hospital Compare	CMS	data.cms.gov
Health Professional Shortage Areas	HRSA	data.hrsa.gov
Veteran Statistics	VA + CDC	Multiple sources

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Related

• Data Trove -- full dataset catalog
• lukesteuber.com -- portfolio
• GitHub
• HuggingFace Dataset
• Kaggle Dataset

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Author

Luke Steuber

• lukesteuber.com
• dr.eamer.dev
• @lukesteuber.com on Bluesky

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Source data is from US federal agencies (public domain).