Map of United States

Note

Census tracts with food deserts were based on the average distance of food markets. In urban areas, food markets at an average of one mile away were considered food deserts. Rural areas used 10 miles to determine if the census tract was a food desert. This definition for food desert contributes to states like Wyoming and Mississippi appearing to have the highest percentage of food deserts even without as many urban census tracts.

States with more cities and a higher population like California and New York appear to have less food deserts due to the definition of food desert in the data set.

The data excludes census tracts in Alaska and Hawai’i.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Largest Urban Counties

Note

This uses the subset of counties with more than 350 urban census tracts. These counties are then the largest urban counties.

Riverside (near Los Angeles) and Maricopa (Phoenix) counties recorded the highest percentage of food desert census tracts. Queens and Kings counties which are both in New York City recorded the lowest food desert concentration.

The majority of the large urban counties were determined to have less than 25% of their census tracts be listed as food deserts.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Food Deserts Bar Graph

Note

The total number of census tracts labeled as food deserts has not significantly changed from 2010 to 2015. The number of urban census tracts greatly increased from 20,082 in 2015 to 24,198 in 2019. During this time period, the number of rural food deserts decreased to keep the total number consistent. As food deserts are normally an issue attributed to urban areas, the sharp increase shows a worsening issue of food deserts in cities from 2015 to 2019.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Poverty Rates Histogram

Note

In rural areas the census tract poverty rate histogram peaks at around 10% while the peak is only around 7% in urban areas. The number of relative number of food deserts is lower in rural census tracts compared to urban areas. The subset of urban areas, illustrates a large proportion of food deserts are on the lower poverty side of the distribution.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Poverty Scatterplot

Note

The scatterplot does not illustrate a strong trend for the relationship between poverty rate and the percentage of food deserts. The three counties with the highest percentage of food desert census tracts (Hyde, Bertie, and Scotland) were all had higher poverty rates compared the average for North Carolina counties.

The largest points indicate a higher population. The majority of higher population counties fall below the average poverty line and there does not appear to be a relationship between population and the percentage of food deserts.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Population Map

Note

Wake (Raleigh) and Mecklenburg (Charlotte) had the highest populations in the state.

The two counties from the previous figure with the highest percentage of food deserts were Hyde and Bertie counties. The chloropleth illustrates that these two counties have very small populations. The counties are both characterized by higher poverty rates and lower population density. Neither county contains large cities, indicating a possible limitation for how food deserts are defined in the data set. This limitation leads to the conclusion that more rural areas with sparser population density will have the most concern for food deserts.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Increase in Food Deserts Map

Note

Since the previous visualization showed the limitations the food desert data for rural areas and the sharp increase in urban food deserts from 2015 to 2019, the cities with the largest increase in urban food desert census tracts were determined. The city with the largest increase over the time period was Los Angeles, California.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

New Food Desert Box Plot

Note

The boxplots use a subset of the data looking at urban areas where the census tract was not a food desert in 2015. This illustrates if there was a difference in poverty rate for new food deserts and areas with no change.

The median was at a lower poverty rate for areas that became food deserts from 2015 to 2019. This illustrates that census tracts with lower poverty rates were becoming food deserts.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

New Food Desert Scatter Plot

Note

The scatter plot uses a subset of the data for counties with more than 50 urban census tracts so the focus can be on cities.

A strong positive linear relationship is illustrated. Counties in the United States with higher percentages of white residents were more likely to have more census tracts be added as food deserts in 2019.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Net Change Scatter Plot

Note

The scatter plot uses a subset of the data for counties with more than 50 urban census tracts so the focus can be on cities.

The visualization does not illustrate any clusters for county observations that had a positive or negative net change in the number of food deserts from 2015 to 2019. The scatter plot shows no clear differences between the counties, leading to a possible conclusion that the percentage of white residents and poverty rate were not significant when trying to predict counties where more food deserts can be found.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture