New Child Opportunity Index Data from BUSSW Researchers Shows Latest Picture of Neighborhood Equity for U.S. Children
A child’s zip code can predict as much about their future as their family’s income. That is the premise behind the Child Opportunity Index, and the tool just got sharper.
The Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development (IECOHD) at Boston University School of Social Work has released the newest version of the Child Opportunity Index, a tool used across the country to measure how neighborhoods support children’s health and development.
The new release, COI 3.0-2024, includes data for every neighborhood in the United States from 2012 through 2024, adding a full year of coverage. The index draws on 44 indicators across three domains: education, health and environment, and social and economic conditions.
Neighborhoods shape children’s long-term outcomes. Access to quality schools, safe housing, healthy food, parks, and clean air all factor into whether children grow into healthy, productive adults. The COI maps and compares these conditions at the neighborhood level, revealing inequities in opportunity by place, race, and ethnicity.
Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, director of IECOHD and diversitydatakids.org, has led the index’s development since its creation in 2014, when the institute built the tool in collaboration with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University.
A Valuable Resource for Policy and Research
Nonprofits, children’s hospitals, government agencies, advocacy organizations, and researchers make up the index’s user community. They rely on the COI to guide policy decisions, direct resources, and to study how neighborhood conditions relate to outcomes such as life expectancy and economic mobility. Nearly 300 peer-reviewed studies have used the index since its launch.
First findings from COI 3.0 show substantial and persistent inequities in neighborhood opportunity, both across and within the country’s largest metro areas. Black and Hispanic children remain far more likely than white children to live in lower-opportunity neighborhoods, a pattern the institute traces in part to a history of discriminatory housing policy.
Explore the New Release
The updated data set is available through several tools on diversitydatakids.org, including an interactive mapping platform, downloadable data files and technical documentation explaining how the index is built. IECOHD plans to share new findings and applications of COI 3.0-2024 in the coming months.
To explore the new release, visit diversitydatakids.org.
Learn more about The Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development