Prince George’s County launches Health Atlas survey on health equity

Prince George’s County is trying to turn health equity into a planning tool, not just a policy slogan. The county Planning Department has launched a Health Atlas study and is asking residents to complete a quick survey that will feed data into an effort meant to connect health outcomes with housing, transportation and environmental conditions.

The push comes after the County Council adopted CR-054-2025 on July 1, 2025, directing the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Prince George’s County Health Department to build a Health Atlas that can support data-driven policymaking and further implement Plan 2035. The resolution calls for analyzing public-health metrics alongside land use and for examining the public-health impact of convenience, tobacco and liquor stores on nearby communities.

That makes the atlas potentially more than a planning exercise. If the county uses it seriously, it could influence zoning decisions, transit access, environmental enforcement and where health dollars go next. If it sits on a shelf, it risks becoming another well-intentioned report with no force behind it. The county already has the building blocks to make the project useful: the Planning Department’s Research Section collects and analyzes data on demographics, housing, land use and the economy, while its GIS and open-data tools already include web map applications, GIS datasets and more than 200 datasets on the open data portal.

The county also has health-data infrastructure in place that the atlas could draw on. The Health Department maintains data and reports resources tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, County Health Rankings and Maryland health data sources, and the county’s Health Indicators pages track chronic disease, access to care and overall well-being. Those tools could help show where health burdens are heaviest and where county action would matter most, especially in neighborhoods shaped by store density, busy roads and uneven access to care.

The policy stakes are clear in Plan 2035’s Healthy Communities section, which says land use and community design can help address Prince George’s County’s obesity epidemic, high rate of heart disease and rising health-care costs by promoting safe, connected communities with access to healthy food and active lifestyles. The council introduced CR-054-2025 on April 29, 2025, the Health, Human Services and Public Safety Committee recommended it with amendments on June 5, 2025, and the full council adopted it on July 1.

What happens next will depend on whether residents use the survey and whether county officials turn the atlas into action. In a county as large and uneven as Prince George’s, the question is not whether the data can describe disparities. It is whether the county will use those findings to change the places where people live, travel and get care.