Featured Map
Health Insurance x Education Level in Appalachia
Maps can make a big world smaller by expanding our perspective,
and make a small world bigger by enhancing the nuance we can perceive.
This map focuses on the Appachia region in North America, comparing the percentage of adults in each county who lack health insurance with the percentage whose educational attainment is less than high school. The color and size of each dot represents these measures for the population in that area. Click them to see a pop-up with more information.
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The legend can help you interpret the centroid data. Regions with red or orange dots have above average rates of a lack of health insurance, and in the bluer areas that problem is less prevalent. Interestingly, there is a noticeable difference in this regard on the border running between Kentucky and Virginia in the north, and Tennessee and North Carolina to the south.
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Larger dots indicate counties with relatively high rates of low educational attainment, which people may experience for a range of socioeconomic and cultural reasons. We see that in most of the areas from TN and NC southward, many of the less educated populations also tend to be less insured. We don't see whether the same inidividuals have both of these disadvantages, but there appears to be a correlation which does not seem to exist in the northern portion of Appalachia.
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By examining and combining data about the rates at which populations are experiencing disadvantages, we can create visuals that help get resources and opportunities where they are most needed, and identify barriers so we can work on removing them.