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Insights › Care deserts
Explainer · How care access is measured
Some ZIP codes carry two things at once: an elevated documented burden of health need, and real barriers to reaching care. This page explains what each of those two axes measures and why we never present it as one causing the other, then lists the ZIP codes carrying both. Pick a state below to see its own list.
National explainerData release 2026National ranking · state pages linked below
568
ZIP codes listed
1.7% of the 32,940 US ZIP codes
38
States with any
of 50 states + DC
34%
In the top 3 states
Alaska, Arizona, California
0
Cross a federal line
no federal line exists for care access, so none can be crossed
Where they are
These figures describe the whole list — every ZIP code carrying the overlap, at either label. Two of them are worth reading before the rows: how many states have at least one, and how much of the list sits in the top three. Together they are why this is published as a single national list rather than a regional one, because the overlap is not confined to a handful of states. What they do not say is that it sits everywhere in equal measure. Most of it is in the West and the South, and the severe label is the narrower pattern of the two: it leans Western and rural, where the barriers we measure are largely distances, and it is close to absent in the Northeast.
Ordered by how many of the twelve signals fire in total, severe first. Each row names the specific barriers to care that fire there. Select any row to open that ZIP code’s own health page.
Fort Apache, AZ · 85926
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Hotevilla, AZ · 86030
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Ganado, AZ · 86505
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Houck, AZ · 86506
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Blue Gap, AZ · 86520
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Nazlini, AZ · 86540
6 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
Argyle, GA · 31623
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Heart Butte, MT · 59448
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Indian Wells, AZ · 86031
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Kykotsmovi Village, AZ · 86039
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Tonalea, UT · 86044
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Peach Springs, AZ · 86434
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Lupton, AZ · 86508
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Pinon, AZ · 86510
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Dennehotso, AZ · 86535
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Many Farms, AZ · 86538
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Counselor, NM · 87018
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Navajo, AZ · 87328
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Niland, CA · 92257
6 of 6 need signals · 5 of 6 access barriers
Round Rock, AZ · 86547
5 of 6 need signals · 6 of 6 access barriers
See the full list → · Showing 20 of 568. Every ZIP code on this list appears on its own state page below.
Not on this list does not mean safe. Thousands of ZIP codes cannot be assessed at all, because too many of the underlying measures are missing to compute either axis. Their absence means not measured, never “no deficit.” Many more were measured and simply do not carry both, and they are not listed either. Absence from this page is never a statement that a place is well served.
What a "care desert" means
A care desert is a ZIP code that carries two things at once: an elevated documented burden of health need, and real barriers to reaching care. We measure each on its own axis — need on one side, access on the other — and a care desert is where both are elevated together. It is a description of two readings sitting in the same place, nothing more.
It reports two things side by side. It does not merge them into a single score, rank areas by how "bad" the overlap is, or say anyone is underserved because of their health.
Why the figures come first. The coverage figures above the list show how many ZIP codes carry this overlap and where they are. Read them before the rows. Each state page below carries that state's full set.
The two axes
The need axis reads six measures of health need for each ZIP code: how many people lack insurance, live in poverty, or face food or housing insecurity, alongside the share reporting fair-or-poor health and the local burden of chronic conditions. A ZIP reads high-need when several of these are elevated at once.
The access axis reads six barriers to reaching care: distance to the nearest emergency room and to the nearest community health center, how thin the local supply of physicians and pharmacies is, how many households have no vehicle, and how limited home internet is for telehealth. A ZIP reads low-access when several of these barriers stack up.
How the two labels read
A ZIP is listed only when several measures on the need axis and several on the access axis are elevated at the same time — each one placing it in the most-affected 10% of US ZIP codes for that measure. How broadly that overlap runs decides which of two labels it carries. The comparison is national, and so is the list at the top of this page; each state page below carries that state's full set.
The overlap runs across a broader set of measures on both axes — an elevated burden of health need meeting substantial barriers to reaching care.
Several measures are elevated on both axes, across a narrower set than the severe label — still a clear overlap of documented health need and barriers to reaching care.
Where a ZIP is not listed. A ZIP that is measured and simply does not carry the overlap is not on the list — and neither is one where too many of the underlying measures are missing to compute both axes, which is shown as not computed rather than as "no deficit." Absence from a state list is never a claim that a place is fine. How we measure this →
See it for a state
Each state page lists the ZIP codes within that state where documented health need and barriers to reaching care are both elevated. We publish a state when it has at least one such ZIP code in the current data release.
The ranking above is national and covers only the states listed here. A state page carries every one of its ZIP codes, not just those high enough to reach the national list.
Read from public data, area by area — not a statement about any individual. A ZIP is shown only when enough of the underlying measures are observable to compute both the need axis and the access axis; where too many are missing, its overlap is not computed — limited data, never "no deficit." A ZIP reaches the list by sitting in the most-affected 10% of US ZIP codes on several measures of each axis. The list is national; each state also has its own page with that state's full set. Read the full methodology →
The permalink /insights/care-deserts/2026-b2767b1b resolves to this exact data release and never changes; an always-latest version lives at /insights/care-deserts. Both are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Suggested citation — ZipVitals, “Care deserts: elevated health need with barriers to care, by ZIP code,” 2026 release (narrative bundle calibration-v10). Permalink /insights/care-deserts/2026-b2767b1b.
Every ZIP code on this list, as a CSV keyed to this exact release. Coverage denominators, source names and license terms travel inside the file header, so the numbers cannot be separated from the terms they came with.
Download the data (CSV, 568 rows)Built from Census ACS, CDC PLACES and federal facility files. One input (NaNDA) carries CC BY-NC terms; the CSV header keeps the per-source terms separate and never silently mixes them.