Zip Code Exam

Client: Equality Health Foundation

This idea reveals what those invisible boundaries around neighborhoods really mean.

There’s one piece of information that can predict your health better than any other: where you choose (or can afford) to live. This idea maps public data about life expectancy against all 30,000 residential US Zip Codes, then correlates it with the social determinants of health, like access to healthy food, affordable housing, and employment. In doing so, it transforms abstract data into something obvious. Then, by showing up in the specific locations where life expectancy gaps are starkest, it makes that data unmissable—nobody can ignore a sign telling you that moving 800 feet would help you live years longer. The Zip Code Exam not only informs viewers how the data affects them; it gives community activists easy and inexpensive places to make improvements. So, it’s a map of what’s wrong—and a road map to fix it.