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Blog & News
Unaffordable Rents by Metropolitan Status: A New Breakdown on SHADAC’s State Health Compare
July 18, 2019:Housing affordability continues to be a challenge in many states, especially those with rising housing costs and large low-income populations. It is important to understand how renters’ experiences with housing affordability vary across metropolitan statuses as well as how this relationship varies by state.
The Unaffordable Rents measure currently available on SHADAC’s State Health Compare is an indicator of housing affordability that measures the percent of rental households that spent more than 30 percent of their household’s monthly income on rent at the state and national level. This measure is now available to be broken down by households’ metropolitan status, a significant determinate of housing affordability.
Households' metropolitan status is determined at the public use microdata area (PUMA) level. Households are classified as metropolitan (“metro”) if their PUMA lies entirely inside a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and are classified as non-metropolitan (“non-metro”) if their PUMA lies entirely outside an MSA. Households are classified as indeterminate metropolitan status (“indeterminate”) if their PUMA lies partially inside an MSA.
Analysis of the this data by SHADAC researchers reveals that while the majority of the nation’s rental households are located in metropolitan areas, nearly three in ten households in non-metropolitan and indeterminate metropolitan areas rent rather than own their homes—highlighting the disparities between characteristics of populations most affected by housing affordability issues.
Unaffordable rents by metro status stable over time
The share of rental households with unaffordable rents has been relatively stable across all metropolitan statuses between 2012 and 2017, though several states experienced small but statistically significant decreases in rates of unaffordable rents across metro statuses.
State variation in unaffordable rents by metro status
Looking at the state level, substantial variation is present in the share of metro rental households with unaffordable rents in 2017, ranging from 32.0% in North Dakota to 54.8% in Hawaii. In 23 states the share of metro households with unaffordable rents was below the national average; the share of metro households with unaffordable rents was above the national average in six states (California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and New York), and more than half of metro rental households in these states had unaffordable rents.
There was also substantial variation across states in the share of non-metro rental households with unaffordable rents in 2017, ranging from 23.7% in Alaska to 51.2% in Utah. In seven states, the share of non-metro households with unaffordable rents was below the national average; the share of non-metro households with unaffordable rents was above the national average in five states.
Disparities in unaffordable rents by metro status vary by state
There were substantial disparities across the states in rates of unaffordable rents by metro status. In 2017, 31 states had significant differences in rates of unaffordable rents by metro status. Fifteen states saw the greatest margins between metro and non-metro areas; twelve had the widest gap between metro and indeterminate metro areas; one saw significant difference between indeterminate and metro areas; and three saw disparities between indeterminate metro and non-metro areas. The gap between the lowest and highest state-level rates of unaffordable rents by metro status ranged from 0.8 percentage points in Connecticut to 24.6 percentage points in Alaska.
Metro rental households were most likely to have unaffordable rents at the national level and in 13 states. Indeterminate rental households in indeterminate areas were most likely to have unaffordable rents in two states (NJ and OR). Non-metro rental households were least likely to have unaffordable rents in six states (AL, AK, ID, LA, OK and OR). Rates of unaffordable rents by metropolitan status were statistically equivalent in 18 states.
Learn more about the estimates used in this analysis, as well as other measures related to social determinants of health, at State Health Compare. For more on how statistics are calculated using significance testing our methodological technical brief can be found here.
Related Reading
Examining Unaffordable Rents as a Social Determinant of Health (Infographics)
Housing Affordability Matters: Measuring and Addressing the Burden of Unaffordable Rents (Infographics)Publication
The Art of Listening: Working with an Advisory Committee to Improve Outreach and Communication to Reach the Remaining Uninsured in Minnesota
Presentation by Brett Fried at the 2019 ACS Data Users Conference. May 15, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
Blog & News
National and State Trends in Opioid-Related Overdose Deaths from 2000 to 2017 (Briefs)
June 10, 2019:Over the past two decades, the United States has experienced a growing crisis of substance abuse and addiction that is illustrated most starkly by the rise in deaths from drug overdoses. Since 2000, the annual number of drug overdose deaths has quadrupled from 17,500 to 70,000 in 2017.1,2 Most of these deaths involved opioids, including heroin, prescription painkillers, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.3
However, in the years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared overdoses from prescription painkillers an “epidemic” in 2011, the opioid overdose crisis has evolved rapidly from a problem tied mostly to prescription opioid painkillers to one increasingly driven by illicitly trafficked heroin and synthetic opioids. More recently, early evidence suggests that the problem also may be spreading beyond opioids to other illicit drugs, such as cocaine and psychostimulants (e.g., methamphetamine).
These two briefs, produced by SHADAC researchers, provide high-level information about opioids and opioid addiction, present the historical context for the epidemic of opioid-related addiction and mortality in the United States, and examine trends in opioid-related mortality across the nation, across states, and among population subgroups. Additionally, due to growing concern and evidence that the opioid crisis may be expanding to other non-opioid illicit drugs, the briefs have been expanded this year to include data on drug overdose deaths from cocaine and psychostimulants, the two types of drugs that are most commonly involved in opioid overdoses.4,5
1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. (2017). Drug Poisoning Mortality: United States, 1999-2015. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/drug-poisoning-mortality
2 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, January 4). Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2013-2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(5152), 1419-1427. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm675152e1.htm?s_cid=mm675152e1_w
3 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016, December 30). Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2010-2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 65(50-51), 1445-1452. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm655051e1.htm
4 Although reports of illicit drugs being tainted with synthetic opioids are relatively common, it is unclear whether deaths involving multiple drugs are typically the result of drugs being intentionally mixed by or unintentionally contaminated through traffickers’ sloppiness, or because individual drug users are concurrently abusing multiple different drugs of their own volition.
5 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, December 12). Drugs Most Frequently Involved in Drug Overdose Deaths: United States, 2011-2016. National Vital Stastics Report, 67(9), 1-14. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_09-508.pdf
Publication
The Opioid Epidemic: National and State Trends in Opioid-Related Overdose Deaths from 2000 to 2017 (Briefs)
Over the past two decades, the United States has experienced a growing crisis of substance abuse and addiction that is illustrated most starkly by the rise in deaths from drug overdoses. Since 2000, the annual number of drug overdose deaths has quadrupled from 17,500 to 70,000 in 2017.1,2 Most of these deaths involved opioids, including heroin, prescription painkillers, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.3
However, in the years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared overdoses from prescription painkillers an “epidemic” in 2011, the opioid overdose crisis has evolved rapidly from a problem tied mostly to prescription opioid painkillers to one increasingly driven by illicitly trafficked heroin and synthetic opioids. More recently, early evidence suggests that the problem also may be spreading beyond opioids to other illicit drugs, such as cocaine and psychostimulants (e.g., methamphetamine).
These two briefs, produced by SHADAC researchers, provide high-level information about opioids and opioid addiction, present the historical context for the epidemic of opioid-related addiction and mortality in the United States, and examine trends in opioid-related mortality across the nation, across states, and among population subgroups. Additionally, due to growing concern and evidence that the opioid crisis may be expanding to other non-opioid illicit drugs, the briefs have been expanded this year to include data on drug overdose deaths from cocaine and psychostimulants, the two types of drugs that are most commonly involved in opioid overdoses.4,5
1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. (2017). Drug Poisoning Mortality: United States, 1999-2015. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/drug-poisoning-mortality
2 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, January 4). Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2013-2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(5152), 1419-1427. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm675152e1.htm?s_cid=mm675152e1_w
3 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016, December 30). Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2010-2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 65(50-51), 1445-1452. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm655051e1.htm
4 Although reports of illicit drugs being tainted with synthetic opioids are relatively common, it is unclear whether deaths involving multiple drugs are typically the result of drugs being intentionally mixed by or unintentionally contaminated through traffickers’ sloppiness, or because individual drug users are concurrently abusing multiple different drugs of their own volition.
5 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, December 12). Drugs Most Frequently Involved in Drug Overdose Deaths: United States, 2011-2016. National Vital Stastics Report, 67(9), 1-14. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_09-508.pdf
Blog & News
SHADAC at the 2019 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM)
May 29, 2019:A number of SHADAC researchers will be presenting their research at the 2019 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM) in Washington, D.C., from Sunday, June 2nd to Tuesday, June 4th, and at the State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Meeting on Saturday, June 1st. Their presentations include:
The Evolving Opioid Crisis: Overdose Trends and Variation across the States
Robert Hest - State Health Policy and Research Interest Group
Coverage Erosion among Kids: Exploring the Increase in Uninsurance among Children Nationally and at the State Level
Natalie Schwehr - State Health Policy and Research Interest Group
Identifying the Geographic Concentration of the Remaining Uninsured in Minnesota and Their Characteristics
Cynthia Pando - State Health Policy and Research Interest Group
Coverage Erosion among Kids: Exploring the Increase in Uninsurance among Children Nationally and at the State Level
Natalie Schwehr
Sustaining community engaged research to promote health equity: Lessons from the RWJF's Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (IRL) Program
Kathleen T. Call
Medical Homes, Neighborhood Characteristics, and Their Impact on Child Health Outcomes
Natalie Schwehr
Immediate Changes in Access to Care after Implementing Mandatory Paid Sick Leave in Minnesota
Kathleen Call (SHADAC)
Identifying the Geographic Concentration of the Remaining Uninsured in Minnesota and Their Characteristics
Cynthia Pando
Visit Us in the Exhibit Hall - Booth #212
SHADAC researchers will be available at the SHADAC booth to answer your questions about state and national data sources on coverage, access, and costs; to discuss our technical assistance offerings; and to walk visitors through State Health Compare. Stop by to chat, check out some of our latest projects, and grab some swag! Be sure to tag and hashtag us (@SHADAC and #SHADACatARM2019) on Twitter to keep up with what we're doing at the conference!
The full presentation schedule for SHADAC faculty, staff, and students can be downloaded by clicking the document on the right.
