Food Environment – Food Desert Census Tracts

Methodology

This indicator reports the number of food deserts in the report area, the total and percentage of the population living in a food desert. A food desert is defined as a low-income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. Furthermore, to qualify as a food desert tract, at least 33 percent of the tract’s population or a minimum of 500 people in the tract must have low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. A low-income census tract is defined as any census tract where the poverty rate for that tract is at least 20 percent, or for tracts not located within a metropolitan area, the median family income for the tract does not exceed 80 percent of statewide median family income. Some census tracts that contain supermarkets or large grocery stores may meet the criteria of a food desert if a substantial number or share of people within that census tract is more than 1 mile (urban areas) or 10 miles (rural areas) from the nearest supermarket. Furthermore, some residents of food desert census tracts may live within 1 or 10 miles of a supermarket; these residents are not counted as low access and thus not counted in the total. Census tract-level data used in this indicator were acquired from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas (FARA) and aggregated to generate county and state-level estimates.

For more information, please refer to the Food Access Research Atlas Documentation.