Topics

Colorado Vaccine Equity Maps

A collection of interactive maps showing COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the first several months of the campaign.

May 4, 2023

The vaccine equity and equity considerations maps for adult and youth populations can help users identify populations disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and track vaccination progress across the state over time. 

Scroll down to see all maps, and click through the toggle bar on the right side of each map for more information.

The maps include vaccine data from local public health partners and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Colorado Health Institute’s Social Distancing Index, and demographic indicators that influence health, including race and ethnicity, age, and income.

The adult vaccine equity maps below show the percent of the population age 18 and older that has been vaccinated over time. The youth vaccine equity maps below show the percent of the population ages 12–17 that has been vaccinated. All maps are by census tract. For Denver metro counties where data were available, vaccination rates were reported by census tract. Elsewhere in the state where these data were not available, values are represented by the county rate. For maps containing more information on vaccination rates by demographic in the Denver metro area, see the Metro Denver Partnership for Health’s vaccination map.

Only census tracts that are low income (more than a third of the population below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level) or have a high percentage of people of color (more than a third) are shown in the first two maps. 

Until May 2021, the state was only able to provide county-level data on doses administered, not population vaccinated. In order to make these comparable, CHI used the ratio of vaccine administration to doses where known and applied this to all counties in the state. See Vaccine Equity Map Categories for the detailed vaccination rate ranges. For all months thereafter, percent of total population vaccinated by census tract were used.

The equity considerations map below shows various demographic indicators that impact health by census tract.

The layers on this map include:

  • Social Distancing Index: CHI’s Social Distancing Index rates every census tract in the state for obstacles to social distancing in our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Each census tract received a score on a scale of 1 to 10 based on its comparison to all other tracts in Colorado. The overall index score for a tract is an average of its scores on the three measures. A higher score indicates more risk.  It is based on three measures: 
    • Overcrowded housing: percentage of residents living in homes with more than one person per room.
    • Population density: residents per square mile.
    • Essential jobs: percentage of residents who work in one of 10 essential job categories.
  • Hispanic/Latinx: percentage of the population that identifies as Hispanic/Latinx by census tract.
  • Black (non-Hispanic Latinx): percentage of the population that identifies as Black (non-Hispanic/Latinx) by census tract.
  • People of Color: percentage of people in each census tract who identify as people of color. This represents Coloradans who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, two or more races, or any other non-white race/ethnicity.
  • Low Income: percentage of the population earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), or about $25,000 per year for a single person, by census tract.
  • Age 70 and Older: percentage of people ages 70 and older by census tract.
  • Uninsured: percentage of the population lacking health insurance by census tract.

Data Sources: CDPHE COVID-19 Vaccine Daily Summary StatisticsDenver Metro Partnership For Health; U.S. Census Bureau’s Five-Year American Community Survey Estimates, 2014-2018; Colorado Health Access Survey, 2019