LA Heat–Health
Risk Index

Each row in this dataset represents a census tract in the greater Los Angeles region. The Heat–Health Risk Percentile (Heat‑HealthRP) is a composite index combining ambient temperature exposure, ambient pollution burden, and community asthma rates across different LA communities to explore: which neighborhoods face compounded climate and environmental health risk.

Key Data


Census Tracts
7,727
valid observations
Mean Risk Score
30.6
percentile (0–100)
Extreme Risk (>80)
196
tracts — top 2.5%
Max Risk Score
100.0
Area Code 90021, Downtown LA
Low Risk (<20)
3,180
tracts — 41.2%


Visualization 01 Distribution

Risk Tier Distribution

How 7,727 LA census tracts distribute across five Heat–Health risk categories. Nearly 41% of tracts fall in the Low tier — but ~25% exceed Moderate risk.

Count by Risk Tier

Absolute counts per tier highlight the long tail of high-risk tracts. The steep drop from Moderate → Very High reveals uneven burden distribution.

Visualization 02 Multivariate

Temperature × Pollution × Health Risk

Scatter of 200 randomly sampled tracts. X-axis = Temperature Percentile; Y-axis = Pollution Percentile. Bubble size reflects Asthma Percentile; color encodes the composite Heat–Health Risk score. The upper-right cluster — high temp AND high pollution — concentrates the most severe risk outcomes.

Low risk (<20)
Moderate (20–40)
High (40–60)
Very High (60–80)
Extreme (>80)
● bubble size = asthma percentile
Underlying Data Top 30 highest risk

Highest Risk Census Tracts

Top 30 tracts by composite Heat–Health Risk Percentile, sorted descending. All values are percentile ranks (0–100).

# GeoID Heat–Health Risk Temp Percentile Pollution Percentile Asthma Percentile Risk Tier
Andy Brennan:

Data: Heat Health Risk Tables. Each observation represents one census tract in the greater LA/Southern California region.
Variables: GeoID (FIPS census tract), PollutionP (pollution percentile), asthmaP (asthma rate percentile), TempP (temperature percentile), Heat-HealthRP (composite heat–health risk percentile).
Viz 01: Donut + Bar chart (Chart.js)
Viz 02: Multivariate bubble scatter (Chart.js). Sample n=200 random tracts for scatter.