At a glance
The 2024 Environmental Justice Index (EJI) includes several updates to the EJI based on feedback received through community engagement, including the addition of climate data to the EJI.
What is the Environmental Justice Index (EJI)?
The Environmental Justice Index (EJI) is the first national, place-based tool designed to measure the cumulative impacts of environmental burden through the lens of human health and health equity. The EJI delivers a single rank for each community to identify and map areas most at risk for the health impacts of environmental burden.
What is new with this update?
The EJI 2024 update features a groundbreaking new Climate Burden Module and an EJI + Climate Burden rank that integrates data on climate risks, environmental hazards, socioeconomic inequality, and population health. This update enhances the EJI, the nation's first cumulative impacts assessment of environmental health risks, to include actionable data on climate change threats to community health.
The EJI update also includes enhancements to increase the tool's accessibility and impact. These include:
- Updated data for all indicators and updated Technical Documentation with a change log,
- An updated interactive mapping interface to easily visualize and compare community ranks and create maps and reports, and
- New EJI Resources for users, including the EJI 2022 Community Engagement Report and downloadable EJI County Maps available through the interactive map.
How can the EJI be used?
Individuals and community-based organizations, public health officials at local, state, and federal levels, scientists, and researchers can use the EJI to:
- Identify and prioritize areas that may require special attention or additional action to improve health and health equity,
- Educate and inform the public about their community,
- Analyze the unique, local factors driving cumulative impacts on health to inform policy and decision making, and
- Establish meaningful goals and measure progress towards environmental justice and health equity.
How to Engage with the EJI Team
CDC/ATSDR is committed to engaging with communities, environmental justice advocates, public health partners, and academic subject matter experts as part of the development and improvement of this tool. Learn more about the EJI and opportunities for community engagement, or reach out to the EJI Team at eji_coordinator@cdc.gov.