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For nearly 2 decades, the Community Health Status Indicators tool reliably supplied communities with standardized, local health data and the capacity for peer-community comparisons. At the same time, it created a large community of users who shared learning in addressing local health needs. The tool survived a transition from the Health Resources and Services Administration to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before being shuttered in 2017. While new community data tools have come online, nothing has replaced Community Health Status Indicators, and many stakeholders continue to clamor for something new that will enable local health needs assessments, peer comparisons, and creation of a community of solutions. The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics heard from many stakeholders that they still need a replacement data source. ( Am J Public Health. 2021;111(10):1865-1873. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306437).

Objective: Using the structure of the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) report, we embarked on analysis of population health data with the aim to validate the CHSI modules as overarching themes and to rank county health within peer strata., Design, Setting, Participants: Ranking was conducted for the largest (>100 000), nonfrontier counties (county aggregates) (N = 508) in the United States for many aspects of population health. Factor analysis was used to assess CHSI modularity and analyses of variance confirmed peer strata homogeneity., Main Outcome Measures: Ten factors were identified. They were life stage, injury, cancer, adult behaviors, preventive services, environment-food, and health care access. Because they did not contribute to a factor, 4 CHSI summary health measures (all-cause mortality, average life expectancy, health status, and unhealthy days) were also ranked., Results: No single factor emerged as reflecting overall county health., Conclusions: Further summary of county health will be challenging. We present the ranks for CHSI peer strata #1, local jurisdictions of 1 million or greater population. County factor content and data availability may differ when counties of smaller size are considered. Ranking may be utilized by community leaders for community health assessment and local priority setting, and ultimately incorporated into CHSI Web-based reports.

The Community Health Status Indicators Project (CHSI) 2008 provides 16-page reports for the 3141 counties in the United States, each of which includes more than 300 county-specific data items related to chronic and infectious diseases, birth characteristics or outcomes, causes of death, environmental health, availability of health services, behavioral risk factors, health-related quality of life, vulnerable populations, summary measures of health, and health disparities. The CHSI, originally initiated in 2000, provides county-level health profiles for all U.S. counties so that programs addressing community health can readily access community health indicators. Each county report also permits comparisons of a county's health status with similar "peer counties," with all counties, and with national Healthy People 2010 objectives. Under the leadership of a public-private partnership, the CHSI Steering Committee updated each county report and added new information and features to create CHSI 2008. This new CHSI version includes data for 1994 through 2006 from multiple surveillance systems. New features include an enhanced Web site, an Internet mapping application, and a downloadable database of the indicators for all counties.

An Internet mapping application is being introduced in conjunction with the release of the second version of the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) Report. The CHSI Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst is an easy-to-use Web-based mapping application that provides new opportunities for the visualization, exploration, and understanding of the indicators. Indicators can be mapped and compared visually to other areas, including peer counties and neighboring counties. The Web site is accessible from a link on the CHSI Report Web site or directly from an Internet Web browser. In this paper, we discuss the conceptualization and implementation of this public health mapping application.

Introduction: The Community Health Status Indicators Project was undertaken to produce county-specific reports assessing the status of community health for local jurisdictions throughout the United States. To accomplish this assessment, the Community Health Status Indicators Project team selected peer groupings of counties to monitor and analyze the health of local communities relative to peer communities., Methods: To identify peer counties, the project team used 5 categorical county demographic variables, a specified order for applying criteria, and a predetermined target for peer grouping size to subdivide counties into homogeneous subgroups called peer groupings., Results: Eighty-eight peer groupings were developed with 14-58 counties in each. The average size of each peer grouping was 35 counties. All peer groupings included counties representing at least 6 states., Discussion: Peer groupings are very useful for community health assessment. They convey the range of health status indicator values for similar counties, serve as a basis for expected numbers of reportable diseases, and provide a method for comparing communities with peer and U.S. medians. To maintain their usefulness, peer groupings must be updated periodically.