Learn how to navigate the dashboard by reading the sections below.
The Profile of State and Territorial Public Health (Profile) survey is a census conducted by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
to gather information on state, territorial, and freely associated state public health agencies (S/THAs) and their activities, structure, and resources.
The Profile aims to define the scope of S/THA services, identify variations in practice among public health agencies, and contribute to the development of
best practices in governmental public health. The Profile began in 2007 and was fielded on average every three years between 2007 and 2022.
The Profile is the most comprehensive data source about S/THAs in the United States.
The data collected through the Profile represent the breadth of work overseen by health agencies and shows how the public health
field has shifted in response to societal changes and emergent needs. Data also reflect the structural nuances and limitations in which
agencies conduct their work. ASTHO launched its new Profile dashboard in December 2023.
This new tool allows users to explore Profile data collected from 2012 – 2022. The Profile Dashboard was created using R Shiny.
The National Association of County Health Officials (NACCHO) publishes the
National Profile of Local Health Departments,
which complements the state and island area level data produced by ASTHO.
When you see the globe icon, select it to see data visualized in a map.
The chart icon shows data through a bar chart, cluster chart, or drill down chart.
The line graph shows data trended over time.
This icon indicates the ability to download a graphic or data visualization.
This icon allows you to explore data through more unique visualization types.
The information icon appears on the footer of every page and provides additional context and information.
You will see this icon on the footer of every page. Select it if you have a question.
Study Design and Survey Questionnaires: Between 2012 and 2022, the Profile was administered to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and eight island areas (i.e., five U.S. territories and three freely associated states). The development of the Profile survey instrument is overseen by a panel of subject matter experts—the Profile Advisory Workgroup—which is comprised of state and territorial health agency staff, federal agency staff, non-profit organization partners, and academic researchers. The survey instrument varies by year, and the full questionnaire for each of the survey years included in the Profile Dashboard are linked below:
ASTHO will soon make data from the Profile Survey of State and Territorial Public Health instantly available to any user upon a data use acknowledgement. Please check back in early 2024 for this update.
Please use the recommended citation below for any references to these data: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. ASTHO Profile of State and Territorial Public Health, Volume Six. Arlington, VA: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. 2023..
For reports related to the 2022 data or longitudinal analyses that include 2022, please visit the Stories and Profiles pages.
There you will find downloadable reports on specific topics (Stories) as well as on all state, territorial, and freely associated state health agencies (Profiles).
ASTHO recommends using and printing these reports.
You may also create custom reports from dashboard content by selecting the icon of three vertical lines at the top right of most figures.
This icon will allow you to download the figure as a .png, .jpg, or .pdf.
For past reports from prior Profile surveys, please visit
this link
on ASTHO's website.
Contact us: If you have questions about the ASTHO Profile Survey of State and Territorial Public Health Agencies, please contact our team at profile@astho.org.
Report a bug: We are thrilled to bring you our new Profile dashboard and we want to make sure you had a great experience using this new tool.
If you experience a bug or glitch while using this product, please share your experience below or email profile@astho.org.
Question about the data? If you have a question about the data, please make sure to check out more information on the home page. There you will find metadata, a raw data download,
and general information about how we collected and report data. If you still have a question, please send an email to profile@astho.org and one of our team members will respond within 48 business hours.
Recommended citation: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. ASTHO Profile of State and Territorial Public Health, Volume Six. Arlington, VA: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. 2023.
The Profile of State and Territorial Public Health dashboard was made possible by many people, including health agency staff, funders, subject matter experts, and ASTHO staff.
Thank you to the staff at state, territorial, and freely associated state health agencies who completed the survey. Your time is valuable and ASTHO appreciates you sharing the information that makes this work possible.
Thank you to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for providing funding support.
The Profile of State and Territorial Public Health survey and dashboard was supported by funding from the CDC cooperative agreement number NU38OT000290, and Strengthening
U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems Grant (NE11OE000066), as well as the RWJF. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors
and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the RWJF.
Subject matter experts including the Profile Advisory Workgroup and ASTHO staff provided input and guidance on questionnaire development, findings, and visual display.
ASTHO staff who contributed to the research study planning, data collection, data management, analysis, dashboard development and visualization include (in alphabetical order): P'Ashe Jones, Lindsay Jorgenson, J.T. Lane, Leanne Lasher, Mad Marshall, Kristi Meadows, Miriam Naiman-Sessions, and Elizabeth Woods. ASTHO thanks Carolyn Leep for her support with data collection, verification, and her expertise and consultation on health agency governance classification.
ASTHO also thanks John Coene from Opifex Sarl for his expertise and support in developing custom tools and features that are showcased on this application.
- Michael Fraser, PhD, MS, CAE, FCPP
Chief Executive Officer, ASTHO
Navigate using tabs up top or by selecting an icon below.
Funding note: The Profile of State and Territorial Public Health survey and dashboard was supported by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cooperative agreement number NU38OT000290, and Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems Grant (NE11OE000066), as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services or the Foundation.
*State agency profiles are currently available, while profiles for territories and freely associated states are coming soon.
Want to add a benchmark trend to per capita expenditures? Select comparison agencies below.
Expenditure Categories (Left): This figure shows FY2018-21 expenditures by category. When the blue dot appears to the right of the orange dot, expenditures in that category increased.
Note: Categorical expenditures can fluctuate year-to-year for numerous reasons. Agency restructuring is one common cause of shifts in categorical spending from one year to the next. When restructuring happens, another state agency may take over a department that was previously within public health. As such, spending shifts should not be interpreted to reflect overall state spending within a given category.
There are several ways to measure workforce, and these measurements are important to distinguish when describing the public health workforce.
Full-time Equivalencies (FTEs)
FTEs are the number of full-time equivalent positions, which is different from both the number of workers and the number of positions. FTEs can include filled FTEs and vacant FTEs, which, when reported together, is a way to describe workforce capacity.
Positions
Positions are the number of actual positions (filled or vacant) within the agency/department. One position may equal one FTE, but it may not. Two half-time positions, for example, equals one FTE.
Employees
Employees are the number of people working at the agency (also called a head count). While there are instances when one position = one FTE = one employee, this is not always the case. For example, one full-time employee (1 FTE) might work in two positions, both at .5 FTE.
Right: Select a job category below to see the number of filled and vacant FTEs by job type within that category.
Workforce Over Time (Below): Total FTEs (filled + vacant) are shown below since the 2012 survey fielding.
Please Note: (1) If a public health agency is not performing an activity, it may be that a separate entity within the jurisdiction, oversees that service. For example, in some jurisdictions, the public health agency oversees the implementation of Medicaid, whereas in others that work falls to an umbrella agency or a separate agency. As such, activity implementation is not a reflection of work happening within a jurisdiction, but rather work happening in the agency. (2) For some states (e.g., Idaho), Sex Education and Abstinence Only Education activities provided in community settings are only directed to parents and not students.