Click here for webpage version of this project
The population of Colorado is comprised of 22% hispanic citizens, but 39% of the COVID-19 cases are afflicting hispanic people, far outweighing any other ethnicity. In this project, I have explored trends in environmental factors, education, and food availability in regions of the state with high hispanic populations to determine possible trends in these areas to account for this disparity.
This project is in collaboration with Halvatzis Consulting and Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Market Insights Report # 1002 - Driving Equitable Growth in Colorado: A Look Back to Move Forward (full report currently work in progress)
Please note that all the figures shown below are linked to the Tableau Public interactive version and can be further explored by clicking on them. They are also embedded with full interactivity on the webpage.
This figure shows the percentage of hispanic people per county (shaded in blue) and the population of hispanics in said county is labeled on the map. The bar graph shows the data in a bar graph representation. It appears that Pueblo County, Adams County, Weld County, and Denver County have both a high concentration and high number of hispanic residents. The population data came from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
The following map shows the maximum recorded air quality index level for each county in Colorado (where data has been recorded by the Environmental Protection Agency) in the year of 2018. The circles on the map represent the percentage (color) and population (size) of hispanic people per each county. Based on regional trends, it appears that the center of the state west of Denver has recorded unhealthy air qualities. This could be due to wildfires in the mountains.
Air Quality Index is an indicator of overall air quality, because it takes into account all of the criteria air pollutants measured within a geographic area. AQI includes all available pollutant measurements from each monitoring station. They include both qualitative measures (days of the year having "good" air quality, for example) and descriptive statistics (median AQI value, for example). [Source: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)]
This plot shows the median Air Quality index in 2018 for each county in Colorado that has data recorded from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There appears to be a positive correlation between the size of the population and the median air quality index level. It it worth noting that many of the counties exhibiting a higher AQI have high hispanic populations. Both Adams County and Denver county show high hispanic populations and the highest median AQI.
The most polluted zip codes in Colorado, according to the Denver post, are plotted in the map below. The zip code 80216 has an extremely high environmental hazard index, and also a very high concentration of hispanic people. The next most polluted zip codes do not appear to be nearly as hazardous, but generally have a smaller percentage of hispanic residents.
This map shows the class of 2019 graduation rates of hispanic people over the counties of Colorado, based on data from the Colorado Department of Education. There appears to be much lower rates in rural counties, though few of them are highly hispanic.
Ths plot shows that there appears to be a negative trend in graduation rates as the population increases. Also, it is important to note that the hispanic graduation rate is considerably lower than that of all compiled races. This disparity seems to get larger in counties with higher population. It may be possible that hispanics in urban counties aren't getting the educational resources they need to succeed.
This bar plot represents the race/ethnicity breakdown of high school graduation rates in the state of Colorado. Again, hispanics have graduation rates below the other major races, and they appear worse in Denver county.
This bar plot represents ethnicity/race breakdown of female graduation races throughout the state and in Denver county. Again, hispanics seem to have lower graduation rates than those of other ethnicities in Colorado.
This bar plot represents ethnicity/race breakdown of male graduation races throughout the state and in Denver county. Male hispanics seem to have lower graduation rates than those of most other ethnicities as well. It is worth noting that the graduation rates are significantly lower in Denver than throughout the whole state.
From this bar plot, hispanic females seem to have much higher graduation rates than hispanic males. It is interesting that Pueblo County has higher graduation rates for Hispanic males and females than average - this is the only highly populated county in the state to show this trend.
This map shows the average percentage of people per county that do not speak fluent english, according to US Census data. Many of the higher rates of nonfluency are in areas of high hispanic concentration.
This bar plot shows the percentage of non-english speakers in the counties in colorado with the highest concentration of those not fluent in English. Spanish is definitely the most common non-english language spoken throughout these areas.
Food access analysis based on data provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Shown is a map of low access, low income census tracts throughout the city of Denver, and the percentage of people affected. The circles on the census tract areas represent the population of hispanic people. Low-income census tracts where a significant number (at least 500 people) or share (at least 33 percent) of the population is greater than 1.0 mile from the nearest supermarket, supercenter, or large grocery store for an urban area or greater than 10 miles for a rural area [Source].
There are two areas of concern, colored orange and red that have high levels of low access. It is worth noting that the orange area is also inside zip code 80216, which has a population that is about 80% hispanic. The zip code 80216 also has very high levels of air pollution.
This map represents metro Denver census tracts and the tracts that are considered low access. There are several census tracts with low access and high hispanic populations.
This map represents metro Denver census tracts that are low access and a signicant number of people have low access to a vehicle. It does not appear that the lack of vehicle and low access affects the hispanic population exclusively.
This plot represents the census tracks in Colorado that are more than 20 miles away from the nearest grocery store or supermarket and have little to no vehicle access. Although not a large quantity of hispanics fall into this category, it is worth noting that the census tracts with the highest percentage of housing units effected also appear to be largely hispanic communities. Costilla County contains the top two census tracts with the highest levels.
There appears to be several regions in the state of Colorado where hispanics may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 due to poor air quality, low food access, lack of quality education, and English non-fluency. By addressing these issues in these regions, hopefully we can begin to help the hispanic community become more resistant to COVID-19 and eliminate the racial disparity in cases.
- Analyze soil & water quality and add to Environmental Factors Analysis
- Analyze various levels of education per county and add to Educational Factors Analysis
Header Image: https://www.ksut.org/post/covid-19-colorado-and-four-corners-numbers#stream/0
Hispanic Population per County: https://demography.dola.colorado.gov/population/race-hispanic-origin/
AQI Data Source: https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/about-air-data-reports#aqi
Air pollution by county https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/air-quality-index-report
Soil Quality: https://ncsslabdatamart.sc.egov.usda.gov/querypage.aspx
Census Info: English fluency https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?d=ACS%205-Year%20Estimates%20Data%20Profiles&table=DP02&tid=ACSDP5Y2018.DP02&y=2018&g=0400000US08,08.050000&hidePreview=true&moe=false
Population by zip code Source: http://zipatlas.com/us/co/zip-code-comparison/percentage-hispanic-population.htm
Denver Post: Top 20 polluted Zip Codes https://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/16/colorado-most-polluted-zip-codes/
Graduation Rate Data source: https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/gradratecurrent
English Non-fluency Data Source: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?d=ACS%205-Year%20Estimates%20Data%20Profiles&table=DP02&tid=ACSDP5Y2018.DP02&y=2018&g=0400000US08,08.050000&hidePreview=true&moe=false
Food Desert Source: https://data-cdphe.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/755f5bf71cbc4b98b1c22785f3fe14ae_0?geometry=-112.745%2C37.404%2C-97.089%2C40.396&page=8&selectedAttribute=lahunv20share
Race/Ethnicity by Census Tract: https://data-cdphe.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/f64104fe9a07488da9d9f95c2c5238a1_7?selectedAttribute=Ethinicity_Hispanic_Latino