Area Deprivation Index (ADI)

The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is based on a measure created by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) over three decades ago, and has since been refined, adapted, and validated to the Census block group neighborhood level by Amy Kind, MD, PhD and her research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It allows for rankings of neighborhoods by socioeconomic 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. It can be used to inform health delivery and policy, especially for the most disadvantaged neighborhood groups.

"Neighborhood" is defined as a Census block group.

Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has been linked to a number of healthcare outcomes, including higher rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, increased utilization of health services, and earlier death^1-5. Health interventions and policies that don't account for neighborhood disadvantage may be ineffective¹. The Neighborhood Atlas website was created in order to freely share measures of neighborhood disadvantage with the public, including educational institutions, health systems, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies, in order to make these metrics available for use in research, program planning, and policy development. The site was launched May 1, 2018.

Data Availability

The 2015, 2020, 2022, and 2023 ADI are available through the Download section

• 1.Link BG, Phelan J. Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. J Health Soc Behav 1995; Spec No: 80-94.
• 2.Ludwig J, Sanbonmatsu L, Gennetian L, et al. Neighborhoods, obesity, and diabetes– a randomized social experiment. N Engl J Med 2011; 365: 1509-19.
• 3.Kind AJ, Jencks S, Brock J, et al. Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and 30-day rehospitalization: a retrospective cohort study. Ann Intern Med 2014; 161: 765-74.
• 4.Lantos PM, Hoffman K, Permar SR, et al. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with high cytomegalovirus seroprevalence in pregnancy. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2018; 5(4): 782-786
• 5.Hu J, Kind AJH, Nerenz D. Area Deprivation Index predicts readmission risk at an urban teaching hospital. Am J Med Qual 2018; (33):493-501.

Citation: 

Kind AJH, Buckingham W. Making Neighborhood Disadvantage Metrics Accessible: The Neighborhood Atlas. New England Journal of Medicine, 2018. 378: 2456-2458. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1802313. PMCID: PMC6051533.

AND

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. {specify year} Area Deprivation Index {specify version}. Downloaded from https://www.neighborhoodatlas.medicine.wisc.edu/ {date}

Example: Kind AJH, Buckingham W. Making Neighborhood Disadvantage Metrics Accessible: The Neighborhood Atlas. New England Journal of Medicine, 2018. 378: 2456-2458. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1802313. PMCID: PMC6051533. AND University of Wisconsin School of Medicine Public Health. 2015 Area Deprivation Index v2.0. Downloaded from https://www.neighborhoodatlas.medicine.wisc.edu/ May 23, 2019.

Source: Neighborhood Atlas ; 02/28/2025