Data Sources & Methodology
Every dataset, API endpoint, and methodology note behind Pulse NYC
All 39 sources are free, public, and either API-accessible or downloadable. No data is fabricated — every figure traces to a published government or research dataset. Seed data is updated when agencies release new annual figures.
Page last rendered: Mon, 09 Mar 2026 03:39:30 GMT · refreshes hourly via ISR
🌬️Air Quality2 sources
EPA AirNow
Live APIReal-time AQI observations by zip code. We query 10001 (Manhattan), 10451 (Bronx), and 11201 (Brooklyn). Returns PM2.5, O₃, and dominant pollutant with AQI category.
airnowapi.org/aq/observation/zipCode/current/View dataset →⟳ Server cache: 1 hour
Free API key required (AIRNOW_API_KEY env var). Cached hourly server-side via Next.js ISR.
NYC Community Air Survey (NYCCAS)
Live APIAnnual average PM2.5, NO₂, and O₃ by 42 UHF neighborhood, 5 boroughs, and citywide. Live-queried and filtered to the most recent annual period. Used for neighborhood PM2.5 chart, borough pollutant breakdown, and citywide PM2.5 KPI.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/c3uy-2p5r.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 24 hours
Prefers rows where time_period contains 'annual'. Falls back to latest available period if no annual rows found.
🦠COVID-191 source
NYC COVID-19 Daily Counts
Live APIDaily confirmed + probable cases, COVID-confirmed hospitalizations, and death certificates. Includes borough-prefixed columns (bx_, bk_, mn_, qn_, si_) enabling 90-day borough breakdown without a join.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/rc75-m7u3.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 24 hours
Incomplete records (same-day) excluded via `incomplete='0'` filter. Monthly trend aggregated server-side.
🤒Influenza-Like Illness2 sources
NYC Syndromic Surveillance — ILI
Seed DataWeekly % of ER visits with ILI diagnosis (fever ≥100°F + cough/sore throat) by borough. Pulled from 53 sentinel hospitals. Season Wk42 2025 – Wk3 2026.
No public REST API — EpiQuery data accessed via web interface and manually updated each season. A civic data gap.
Flu Vaccination Rates
Seed DataAdult flu vaccination rate (%) by borough. 2023–24 season survey of adults 18+. Source: NYC DOHMH Community Health Survey.
🍽️Food Safety1 source
NYC Restaurant Inspection Results
Live APIEvery restaurant inspection since 2010 — violation codes, critical flags, scores, and grades (A/B/C/N/Z). We query critical violations by cuisine, average score by borough, and current grade distribution using SoQL aggregation.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/43nn-pn8j.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 1 hour
🐀Environmental Health4 sources
NYC Rodent Inspection
Live APIEvery DOHMH rodent inspection result since 2010. Results include Passed, Active Rat Signs, Rat Activity, and Failed. We aggregate the last 30 days by borough.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/p937-wjvj.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 1 hour
NYC 311 Service Requests
Live APIAll 311 complaints since 2010. Noise complaints filtered via `complaint_type like 'Noise%'` and aggregated by borough and type over the last 7 days. Also shown on neighborhood detail pages filtered to the relevant borough.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/fhrw-4uyv.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 1 hour
NYC DEP Drinking Water Quality
Live APILive distribution monitoring data: free chlorine (mg/L), turbidity (NTU), fluoride (mg/L), and coliform/E. coli results from sampling sites across the city. We average the last 30 days of Operational samples to populate the water quality table.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/bkwf-xfky.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 24 hours
Filtered to sample_class='Operational'. Coliform is reported as '<1' for non-detects; we count numeric values ≥1 as detections.
USDA Food Access Atlas
Seed DataCensus-tract level data on food access, low-income populations, and supermarket proximity. Borough % of low-access tracts sourced from 2019 Atlas.
🏥Chronic Disease & Health Behaviors12 sources
CDC PLACES — County Estimates (2025 release)
Live APIAge-adjusted prevalence estimates for all 5 NYC counties. We fetch datavaluetypeid=AgeAdjPrv for 8 measures: obesity (OBESITY), diabetes (DIABETES), depression (DEPRESSION), current asthma (CASTHMA), smoking (CSMOKING), physical inactivity (LPA), high blood pressure (BPHIGH), and no health insurance (ACCESS2).
data.cdc.gov/resource/swc5-untb.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 7 days
These are BRFSS model estimates — not direct measurements. We filter server-side to NYC county FIPS codes: 36005 (Bronx), 36047 (Kings/Brooklyn), 36061 (New York/Manhattan), 36081 (Queens), 36085 (Richmond/Staten Island).
CDC PLACES — Census Tract Estimates
Live APIModel-based estimates for ~4,700 NYC census tracts used in the neighborhood CDC PLACES choropleth map. Five measures displayed: OBESITY, DIABETES, CSMOKING, DEPRESSION, and ACCESS2.
data.cdc.gov/resource/cwsq-ngmh.json⟳ Server cache: 7 days
Served via internal /api/places proxy route (revalidates weekly). Tract GeoJSON bundled in public/nyc-tracts.json.
NYC DOHMH Vital Statistics — Leading Causes of Death
Live APIAge-adjusted death rates and counts for leading causes by sex and race/ethnicity. We filter sex='Total', group by cause, take the most recent year, and display the top 8 by death count.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/jb7j-dtam.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 7 days
Cause names include ICD-10 codes which are stripped for display.
NYC DOHMH HIV/AIDS Surveillance
Live APIAnnual HIV diagnoses, death counts, and diagnosis rates per 100,000 by borough, neighborhood, sex, and race/ethnicity. We filter to borough-level totals for the most recent year.
data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/ykvb-493p.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 7 days
Looks for rows where neighborhood='All' for borough totals; falls back to summing neighborhood rows per borough if not found.
NYC DOHMH — Overdose Deaths by UHF42 Neighborhood
Seed DataAge-adjusted unintentional drug poisoning (overdose) death rate per 100,000 by UHF42 neighborhood of residence. 2023 data (provisional). Sourced from Epi Data Brief No. 150 (October 2025). Fentanyl involved in 80% of deaths. Range: 12.2 (Greenwich Village/SoHo) to 134.8 (Hunts Point/Mott Haven) per 100K.
View dataset →No public REST API — neighborhood-level rates are published only in DOHMH Epi Data Brief PDFs. Data extracted from the data tables accompanying Brief No. 150. 2023 figures are provisional and subject to revision.
NYC DOHMH EHDP — Preterm Births by UHF42 Neighborhood
Seed DataPercentage of singleton live births before 37 weeks gestational age by UHF42 neighborhood. 2020 data (most recent available at UHF42 level). Range: 5.3% (Greenpoint / Greenwich Village) to 14.0% (Northeast Bronx). Citywide average: 8.8%.
View dataset →Data sourced from the NYC DOHMH Environment & Health Data Portal (EHDP), indicator ID 1 (MeasureID 2 = rate). The EHDP data is published via GitHub (nychealth/EHDP-data) and updated annually but UHF42-level data currently extends only through 2020.
NYC DOHMH Asthma Data
Seed DataAge-adjusted asthma emergency department visit rate per 10,000 by borough. 2021 data. Source: NYC DOHMH Environment & Health Data Portal.
NYC Vital Statistics — Life Expectancy by Borough
Seed DataLife expectancy at birth by borough. 2019 figures used (pre-COVID baseline). Source: NYC DOHMH Summary of Vital Statistics.
NYC Vital Statistics — Preterm Birth
Seed Data% of live births before 37 weeks gestation by borough. 2022 figures. Source: NYC DOHMH Summary of Vital Statistics.
NYC FITNESSGRAM — Childhood Obesity
Seed Data% of K–8 students classified as obese or overweight by borough. 2022 data. Collected during physical education fitness testing.
SPARCS Hospital Discharge Data
Seed DataStatewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. Top ER visit diagnoses use SPARCS discharge counts for NYC facilities. Covers all NYS hospital discharges.
Full SPARCS microdata requires a Data Use Agreement. Aggregate counts shown here are from published DOHMH reports.
NYC DOHMH Mental Health ED Trend
Seed DataMental health emergency department visit rate per 100,000 population. 2018–2023. Source: NYC DOHMH Epi Data Brief.
👥Demographics7 sources
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Race & Ethnicity (B03002)
Live APIHispanic or Latino Origin by Race at county (borough) level. Variables B03002_001E (total), _003E (NH White), _004E (NH Black), _006E (NH Asian), _012E (Hispanic). Queried for all 5 NYC counties.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5View dataset →⟳ Server cache: 30 days
No API key required for low-volume queries (<500/day). Cached 30 days.
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Poverty Rate (B17001)
Live APIPoverty status in the past 12 months. B17001_001E (total) and B17001_002E (below poverty level) used to compute borough poverty rate %. Displayed on Demographics page.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5⟳ Server cache: 30 days
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Median Household Income (B19013)
Live APIMedian household income in the past 12 months (in inflation-adjusted dollars). B19013_001E per county. Displayed on Demographics page.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5⟳ Server cache: 30 days
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Uninsured Rate (S2701)
Live APIHealth insurance coverage status. S2701_C04_001E (uninsured count) and S2701_C01_001E (total civilian population) used to compute borough uninsured rate %. Displayed on Demographics page.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5/subject⟳ Server cache: 30 days
Uses the ACS Subject Tables endpoint (/acs5/subject) rather than the detailed tables endpoint.
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Asian Subgroups (B02015)
Seed DataAsian Alone by Selected Groups (citywide). Covers 20+ distinct Asian subgroups including Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Pakistani, Vietnamese, and others.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5Shown as citywide NYC aggregate. Borough-level subgroup data is available but requires additional processing.
NYC DOHMH Community Health Survey (CHS)
Seed DataAnnual telephone survey of ~10,000 NYC adults. Health disparities data by race/ethnicity: diabetes, obesity, hypertension, uninsured rate, smoking. 2022 figures used.
Survey estimates carry ±2–4 percentage point margin of error. Asian health data may under-represent newer immigrant groups.
NYC DOHMH Vital Statistics — Life Expectancy by Race
Seed DataLife expectancy at birth by race/ethnicity. 2019 pre-COVID baseline. NH Asian: 87.1y, Hispanic: 82.8y, NH White: 81.2y, NH Black: 74.5y. The 12.6-year Asian–Black gap is a key health equity indicator.
💊Overdose & Lead2 sources
Drug Poisoning Mortality
Seed DataUnintentional drug poisoning deaths by borough, substance, and year. 2017–2024 (2024 is preliminary estimate). Fentanyl involved in ~80% of recent deaths.
NYC-specific annual overdose trend data is not available via a public REST API. Figures sourced from published NYC DOHMH Vital Statistics reports.
Child Blood Lead Surveillance
Seed Data% of children under 6 with elevated blood lead levels (≥3.5 μg/dL per CDC reference value) by borough and year. 2015–2023.
Dataset tnry-kwh5 is available on NYC Open Data but only updated through 2016. Figures from 2017–2023 sourced from published DOHMH surveillance reports.
📰News & Media1 source
Google News RSS
Live APITwo RSS queries merged and deduplicated: (1) NYC-local health news — 'NYC health department OR DOHMH OR "new york city health"', and (2) national alerts relevant to NYC — 'CDC health alert OR disease outbreak "New York"'. Returns up to 12 headlines with source, timestamp, and link. Priority flag applied to CDC/outbreak/emergency items.
news.google.com/rss/search?q=…&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:enView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 30 minutes
RSS XML parsed server-side with regex (no external package). Google News RSS is free and requires no API key. Items with 'CDC', 'alert', 'outbreak', 'emergency', 'advisory', or 'warning' in title/source are surfaced first and highlighted in amber.
🗺️Neighborhood Profiles5 sources
NYC DOHMH Environment & Health Data Portal — Asthma ED
Seed DataAge-adjusted asthma emergency department visit rate per 10,000 residents by UHF42 neighborhood. 2019 figures used. One of the primary health burden indicators in neighborhood profiles.
a816-dhcm.data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/udc3-5wb5.jsonView dataset →NYC DOHMH Vital Statistics — Life Expectancy by UHF42
Seed DataLife expectancy at birth by UHF42 neighborhood. 2019 figures (pre-COVID baseline). Ranges from 76.4y (Hunts Point/Mott Haven) to 89.4y (Upper East Side) — a 13-year gap across the city.
View dataset →CDC PLACES — Census Tract (neighborhood-level)
Live APIObesity and diabetes rates mapped to UHF42 neighborhoods via census tract aggregation. 2023 PLACES release. Used for obesity%, diabetes% fields in all 42 neighborhood profiles.
data.cdc.gov/resource/cwsq-ngmh.jsonView dataset →⟳ Server cache: 7 days via /api/places
U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Poverty by Neighborhood
Seed DataPoverty rate (% below federal poverty line) by ZIP code cluster, mapped to UHF42 boundaries. 2022 ACS 5-year estimates. Used for poverty% in neighborhood profiles.
api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5View dataset →UHF42 Boundary GeoJSON
Seed DataPolygon boundaries for all 42 United Hospital Fund neighborhoods, simplified and bundled at public/uhf42.json (45KB). Used by the Leaflet choropleth map on the Neighborhood Index page. Properties: GEOCODE, GEONAME, BOROUGH.
View dataset →UHF42 was designed to align with ZIP code clusters for hospital discharge data. It is the standard geographic unit for NYC public health surveillance and differs from Community Districts and NTAs.
🥗Nutrition2 sources
CDC NHANES (National)
Seed DataNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 58+ blood biomarkers including vitamin D and iron by race/ethnicity and sex. 2017–2020 cycle used. National data — not NYC-specific.
NYC-level biomarker data does not currently exist. NYC HANES (last conducted 2013–14) is the only NYC-specific nutrition survey and is significantly out of date.
NYC HANES (2013–14)
Data GapBlood biomarker survey of ~3,500 NYC adults covering vitamin D, iron, HbA1c, and more. Conducted 2013–14. This is a genuine civic data gap — no equivalent dataset exists for post-2014 NYC.
NYC HANES needs to be repeated. A 2025 version would enable neighborhood-level nutritional surveillance that currently does not exist anywhere.
Borough Map Boundaries
Borough polygon GeoJSON bundled from github.com/dwillis/nyc-maps (NYC Planning, public domain). Served from Vercel CDN — no external call at runtime.