Area Deprivation Index

Methodology

About the 2019 Area Deprivation Index (ADI)
The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) allows for rankings of neighborhoods by socioeconomic status disadvantage in a region of interest (e.g. at the state or national level). It includes factors for the theoretical domains of income, education, employment, and housing quality. Index scores can be used to inform health delivery and policy, especially for the most disadvantaged neighborhood groups.

The Area Deprivation Index ranks neighborhoods relative to all neighborhoods across the nation (National Score) or relative to other neighborhoods within just one state (State Decile). Values are assigned by ranking all census block groups from low to high and grouping the block groups/neighborhoods into bins corresponding to each 1% range. Group 1 is the lowest ADI and group 100 is the highest ADI. A block group with a ranking of 1 indicates the lowest level of “disadvantage” within the nation and an ADI with a ranking of 100 indicates the highest level of “disadvantage”. The State scores are assigned at the block group level from 1 to 10. The state deciles are constructed by ranking the ADI from low to high within each state – without consideration of national ADIs. Again, group 1 is the lowest ADI (least disadvantaged) and 10 is the highest ADI (most disadvantaged).

County Level Scores
The county-level scores displayed here are population-weighted averages using the block-group level Area Deprivation Index scores and the 2020 Decennial Census total population. State decile scores are converted to a 1-100 point scale.

For more information, please visit the University of Wisconsin Neighborhood Atlas website.