Public health data

Collection, review and analysis of health data is an important function of Hennepin County Public Health. Organization of that data into the community health assessment and other reports provides health data to inform stakeholders and the public about health issues and concerns in the community.

The county uses the Community Health Assessment tool to monitor the health of children and adults who live in Hennepin County. It serves as a resource for an ongoing conversation about policies and programs to enhance health in the county.

Public Health also prepares reports and briefs that are topic-specific, often including a review of the current status, and where possible breakdowns by race/ethnicity, age, income, education and/or geography are provided, and in some cases comparison to state, local or national data and trend data. For most topics more specific requests may be accommodated.

For specific data requests or any questions on data in the fact sheets, please email publichealthdata@hennepin.us. Reports are updated as new data becomes available.

Community health assessment

The community health assessment is a tool to monitor the health of children and adults who live in Hennepin County. It serves as a resource for an ongoing conversation about policies and programs to enhance health in the county. Collection, review, and analysis of health data is an important function of Hennepin County Public Health. Organization of that data into the community health assessment and relevant facts sheets is one way to share health data to inform stakeholders and the public about health issues and concerns in the community.

• Community health assessment, 2024 – 2028 (PDF, 11 MB)
• Community health assessment, 2021 – 2025 (PDF, 15MB)
• Community health assessment, 2016 – 2020 (PDF, 3MB)

Dashboards, reports, and presentations

Public dashboards

• Opioid-related deaths
• Substance involved emergency and hospital visits
• SHAPE 2022
• Hepatitis B surveillance
• Hepatitis C surveillance
• Death summary statistics
• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program

2024 LGBTQ+ community data forum

On April 30, 2024, Hennepin County Public Health held a community data forum titled LGBTQ+ Health in Hennepin County: Data, Resiliency, and Action. This event focused on the health of LGBTQ+ residents.

• LGBTQ+ Health in Hennepin County: Data, Resilience, and Action (YouTube)
• LGBTQ+ adult health presentation (PDF, 2MB) 
• LGBTQ+ youth health presentation (PDF, 2MB) 

Race and health equity

Racial discrimination and health - findings from SHAPE 2018 (PDF, 1MB)

Health trends across communities (HTAC)

The Health Trends Across Communities (HTAC) project will offer a unique and valuable source of information on a range of chronic, behavioral, and mental health conditions in Minnesota. HTAC is maintained by the Minnesota Electronic Health Records Consortium.

• HTAC dashboard     

Public health informatics

Data modernization efforts at Hennepin County Public Health received a significant boost through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated through Board Action Request (BAR) 21-0381. This funding expanded public health human infrastructure including creating the public health informatics unit along with technical support and resources. This work aligned with an enterprise-wide focus on data modernization supported by ARPA funds allocated by BAR 21-0340. 

The public health informatics unit has three primary roles:

• Data engineering,  
• Data and information management,
• Data governance.

The team is responsible for data modernization efforts, public health cross-sector data framework, data pipeline development and maintenance, data and information sharing and permissions, documentation organization, and maintaining public health data sharing agreements.

Data modernization

The informatics unit leads the public health data modernization efforts. The modernized data infrastructure includes: 

• IT components (example: public health data lake)
• Human resources (data engineers, data analysts, and data strategists working with program staff)
• Legal framework

At the 2023 NACCHO360 conference, the unit discussed how this was accomplished using death records as an example: Death data pipeline and reporting, 2023 NACCHO360 (PDF, 1MB)

Public health cross-sector data framework

The public health cross-sector data framework allows sharing of public health, social service, and criminal justice data to inform public health practice. The informatics unit works closely with legal, privacy, and program-specific staff when conducting this work. The presentations and poster below highlight some examples of this work. 

• Infectious disease, homelessness, and criminal justice cross-sector poster, 2024 PHI-con (PDF, 1MB)
• Leveraging cross-sector data in the opioid crisis response, 2023 PH Law Conference (PDF, 1MB)
• Opioid-related death cross-sector evaluation, 2023 NACCHO360 (PDF, 1MB)
• Immunizations poster, 2023 NACCHO360 (PDF, 1MB)