Methodology

COVID-19 data by race and ethnicity was sourced from The COVID Tracking Project’s COVID Racial Data Tracker, a partnership between The Atlantic and The Antiracist Research & Policy Center. Data are updated daily and include counts by race and Hispanic origin of positive test results, negative test results and deaths. The COVID-19 findings we report here are based on data downloaded from the Tracker on June 18, 2020, at 10:00 AM CDT.

We feature states that report relatively complete (i.e. missing less than 20% race data) COVID-19 case and death data with one exception, Arizona, for which race data was missing for 40% of positive cases and 13% of death records. Arizona was included in order to highlight the experience of American Indians and Alaskan Natives. The portion of all cases and deaths were calculated for each racial group and Hispanic ethnicity after removing case counts for which race/ethnicity is unknown. These portions were then divided by each racial or ethnic group’s portion of the population to identify states where racial and ethnic groups were overrepresented in terms of identified cases and deaths.

HOPE data is sourced from established data sources designed to allow the creation of representative estimates of prevalence at the state and national levels. The table below summarizes the data sources for the indicators highlighted on the COVID-19 site. HOPE goals (or benchmarks) are based on the actual experiences of the five best performing socioeconomic groups across all states and were calculated as the average of those top five groups. The table below also includes the benchmark for each of the six highlighted indicators.

Data Sources & Benchmarks for Highlighted HOPE Indicators

Indicator
Source & Year
Population
Benchmark
High Health Status
BRFSS 2015-2017
Adults 25yo+
73%
Affordable Housing
ACS 2013-2017
HH headed by adult 25yo+
87%
Food Security
USDA Food Atlas, 2015
Everyone
97%
Health Insurance Coverage
ACS 2013-2017
0-64yo
98%
Livable Income
ACS 2013-2017
Adults 25yo+
88%
Low Poverty Concentration
NCDB 2010
Everyone
100%

BRFSS – Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System;  ACS – American Community Survey; USDA – U.S. Department of Agriculture; NCDB  – Neighborhood Change Database using 2010 U.S. Census data; HH – household.

To access The HOPE Initiative’s 2018 data and reports, click here.