Overview

Column 1

Data Source: CalEnviroScreen (CES) 4.0, a composite dataset with a host of environmental exposure and health outcome markers produced and maintained by the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA), a branch of California’s EPA.

You can read more about CES here: CES 4.0 website. CES 4.0 is available as both a tabular spreadsheet (.xlsx) and a geospatial shapefile (.shp).

Background: Several cities with large population struggle to recover from the pandemic.This dashboard is created to focus on the distribution of races and poverty rates to help city officials implement policies and outreach programs to support communities of colors. I chose to focus on the five largest counties in southern California,Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Riverside, and San Bernardino. As these counties are. With such large population, this dashboard briefly into the distribution of ethnicities, including Hispanic, White, African American, Asian American, and Other/Multiple, within these counties.

Racial Breakdown by percentages for the Five Counties

Since the five counties are expansive and densely populated, the breakdown of race percentages considers various zip codes within each county. To ensure a more comprehensive overview, I opted for the median of the percentages for each race. This approach minimizes the impact of outlier zip codes where populations might significantly deviate from the average.

Result: In Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, the Hispanic population is a significant majority, constituting over 40% (but less sthan 50%) of the total population. Following closely, the White population claims the second-largest share in these counties. Conversely, in Orange and San Diego counties, the Hispanic population hovers around 20%, with the White population being more predominant. Orange County stands out with the highest percentage of Asian American residents among the five counties, and San Bernardino county leads in the African American population percentage.

Column 2

Normalized Poverty Rates Across the Five counties

The normalized poverty rates per 1,000 people across the high counties highlight on the economic disparities across communities.The rate was calculated considering the population of each county. Los Angeles County, being the most populous among the five, has a staggering population of 10,081,570. San Diego County, the second most populous, follows with the population of 3,316,073, albeit with a considerable gap in population compared to Los Angeles County. Orange County’s population hovers around three million. Riverside County, with a population of approximately two and a half million, and San Bernardino County, with a population of around two million, round out the list.

Result: Los Angeles’s county highest rate of poverty reflect its considerably high population compared to the rest of the counties. Riverside and San Bernardino counties have similar rate of poverty also have quite similar population. Note that these three counties also have the highest Hispanic population percentages. San Bernadio county also has the highest African American population of the five counties. Orange county has the lowest rate of poverty, followed by San Diego County. These two counties have the high percentage of the White population and lowest percentage of the Hispanic population.