Understanding where Americans can access affordable, nutritious food is critical to addressing diet-related health disparities and food insecurity nationwide. The Food Access Research Atlas, developed by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), is a powerful mapping tool that visualizes multiple indicators of food store access at the census tract level. By identifying low-income and low-access areas – commonly known as food deserts – the Food Access Research Atlas helps communities, planners, and policymakers understand where residents face the greatest barriers to healthy eating.
What the Food Access Research Atlas Measures
The Atlas evaluates food accessibility across three core dimensions: distance to supermarkets or large grocery stores, individual household resources such as family income and vehicle availability, and neighborhood-level characteristics including poverty rates and public transportation access.
Low-income census tracts are designated based on poverty rates of 20 percent or higher, or median family incomes below 80 percent of the state or metropolitan area median. Low-access designations are determined by distance thresholds – ½-mile or 1-mile for urban areas and 10-mile or 20-mile for rural areas – along with vehicle availability indicators.
How the Food Access Research Atlas Is Used
The Food Access Research Atlas is a versatile resource for a wide range of users. Public health departments rely on it to identify intervention priorities. Urban planners apply it to retail development strategies. Nonprofits use it to target food assistance programs more effectively. Researchers analyze connections between food access, diet quality, and health outcomes across diverse communities.
Users can create customized maps based on different distance measures, compare the most current data against historical baselines to track change over time, explore indicators by demographic subpopulation, and download tract-level data for local planning and research.
Access Food Access Research Atlas Data on Social Explorer
Ready to explore the Food Access Research Atlas for your community or research? Sign up for a free trial of Social Explorer to gain instant access to Food Access Research Atlas data alongside hundreds of other demographic and health datasets – all in one intuitive, browser-based community analysis and mapping application.