Over 80 million Americans live in areas designated as healthcare deserts. Learn what causes these gaps in access and how they affect communities across the country.
CT
CartoChrome Team
··8 min read
Healthcare AccessHealthcare DesertsRural HealthUrban HealthSDOHPublic Health
Healthcare deserts affect a staggering number of Americans. These areas, often rural but increasingly found in urban settings, lack adequate access to primary care, emergency services, mental health providers, and specialty care.
What Is a Healthcare Desert?
A healthcare desert is a geographic area where residents face significant barriers to accessing healthcare services. These barriers can include long travel distances to the nearest provider, an insufficient number of providers relative to the population, or economic factors that make care unaffordable even when physically available.
The concept parallels "food deserts" — areas where access to affordable, healthy food is limited. Just as food deserts create nutritional disparities, healthcare deserts create health outcome disparities that compound over generations.
The Scale of the Problem
According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA Bureau of Health Workforce, 2024), more than 80 million Americans live in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). These designations indicate areas where the ratio of providers to population falls below minimum thresholds.
Check Your ZIP Code Health Score
See how your area compares across 11 health dimensions
But HPSAs only capture part of the picture. CartoChrome's Healthcare Access Score goes further by incorporating:
Provider availability — not just presence, but capacity relative to demand
Travel time
— using actual drive-time calculations, not straight-line distance
Social determinants — transportation access, insurance coverage, income levels
Quality metrics — hospital star ratings, readmission rates, patient outcomes
Urban Healthcare Deserts
Contrary to popular belief, healthcare deserts are not exclusively rural. Many urban neighborhoods, particularly those with high poverty rates, face severe access challenges. A hospital may be physically nearby, but if it lacks specialty departments, has long wait times, or is inaccessible by public transit, effective access remains limited.
In cities like Detroit, Baltimore, and parts of Chicago, ZIP codes can have Healthcare Access Scores below 25 — classified as Healthcare Deserts — despite being within major metropolitan areas.
What Causes Healthcare Deserts?
Several factors contribute to the formation and persistence of healthcare deserts:
Provider distribution — Medical professionals tend to practice in affluent, urban areas with better compensation and quality of life
Hospital closures — Over 130 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, with more at risk (Source: Chartis Center for Rural Health)
Economic barriers — Areas with low insurance coverage and high poverty rates attract fewer providers
Transportation gaps — 3.6 million Americans miss medical appointments annually due to transportation barriers (Source: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2005)
Policy decisions — States that did not expand Medicaid tend to have more healthcare deserts
How CartoChrome Maps Healthcare Access
CartoChrome uses the Enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (E2SFCA) method to compute healthcare access scores for every ZIP code. This peer-reviewed methodology accounts for both supply (provider availability) and demand (population size and health needs), producing a nuanced picture that simple provider-count maps cannot achieve.
Our 0-100 scale makes it easy to understand: a score of 90+ means Healthcare Paradise, while a score below 25 means Healthcare Desert. Explore the interactive map to see how your area compares.
