Mapping Recovery: How Chicago Tracks Life Expectancy and Health Outcomes with the Chicago Health Atlas
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, life expectancy in Chicago dropped sharply, exposing and widening long-standing inequities. By 2023, signs of recovery were emerging, but the city needed to go beyond averages to answer critical questions like: Who was gaining back years of life? Which neighborhoods were still lagging? And what causes were driving the persistent gap between Black and non-Black Chicagoans?
The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) turned to the Chicago Health Atlas, powered by Metopio, to find out.
Why the Data Matters
Life expectancy is one of the clearest measures of population health. For CDPH, publishing the 2023 Life Expectancy Data Brief was an opportunity to measure the city’s progress since the pandemic and hold itself accountable to residents.
Chicago’s average life expectancy reached 78.7 years in 2023, nearly back to its pre-pandemic level, but the numbers told a more nuanced story:
Black and Latino residents saw the greatest rebound (4+ years gained since 2020), though only White residents have fully returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The life expectancy gap between Black and non-Black residents narrowed from nearly 13 years in 2021 to about 11 years in 2023.
Stark neighborhood differences remain: residents of the Loop live an average of 87 years, while those in West Garfield Park live just 67 years — a 20-year gap.
““The significant gains we’ve made in life expectancy are the result of years of coordinated efforts across the city. Nearly eliminating COVID-19 deaths — once the largest driver of the racial life expectancy gap — has been key. We’re also seeing progress in reducing deaths from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and homicide, particularly among Black Chicagoans.” ”
The Role of the Chicago Health Atlas
Powered by Metopio, the Chicago Health Atlas integrates death records, census data, and cause-of-death classifications into a single, trusted platform. Instead of sifting through endless static spreadsheets, CDPH and its partners can now:
Visualize trends in life expectancy over time
Compare outcomes across race, ethnicity, and neighborhood
Identify drivers of health gaps, from chronic disease to violence
Share data publicly through ChicagoHealthAtlas.org, building trust and accountability
This public-facing tool ensures that residents, journalists, and community organizations have access to the same insights as CDPH. Community groups now use the Atlas to strengthen grant applications, design programs, and advocate for meaningful change.
Why It Matters
Chicago’s story shows what’s possible when public health data is available, transparent, and actionable. The rebound in life expectancy is encouraging, but we know inequities remain. By making disparities visible, CDPH and its partners can better target interventions, allocate resources, and advance the goals of Healthy Chicago 2025.
The Chicago Health Atlas does more than provide data infrastructure, it's helping a major U.S. city move from raw statistics to actionable intelligence — and positioning Chicago as a national model for how public health can measure recovery, engage communities, and drive outcomes!
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Media coverage: WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times