In a follow up to their 2014 study, Johns Hopkins has released new data on urban sprawl in the U.S. and new findings on its health and wellbeing impacts.
A new project led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calculates sprawl scores for over 200 metropolitan areas, nearly 1000 urban counties and thousands of census tracts, providing an update to their 2014 study on the correlation between sprawl and quality-of-life outcomes.
Supported by the Center for Smart Transportation and the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, the index defines, measures, and evaluates urban sprawl in the U.S. by measuring development density, land use mix, population and employment centering, and street connectivity.
The study finds that sprawling residential living is linked to worse health outcomes, including higher rates of hospitalizations due to COPD and heart attacks; high rates of residential energy burden, increased rates of disconnected youth and social connections and even higher risks of Lyme disease infection. Unsurprisingly, the analysis found that less sprawling areas provide health benefits and offset living costs compared to areas that are more sprawling.
View the study's full metropolitan sprawl rankings, as well as interactive maps, data and the full report at the link below.
Read the full story: Who Sprawls the Most?
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