This health assessment doesn’t start with a stethoscope — it starts with your address.
The Zip Code Exam is a groundbreaking digital experience designed to reveal how your environment shapes your health and impacts your life expectancy. By examining the connection between place and well-being, the interactive platform shines a light on the invisible forces — like housing, education, income, access to care, food security and walkable environment— that determine how long and how well we live.
Developed in collaboration with community leaders, data experts, creative partners, and health equity advocates, the Zip Code Exam empowers people to explore how their zip code impacts life expectancy — and what can be done to change it. The interactive platform assesses life expectancy across 30,000 ZIP Codes nationwide, allowing users to uncover environmental and systemic factors and identify ways to create change.
Arizona became the blueprint. And now, we’re scaling it to help more communities take their health and well-being into their own hands.
With safety nets unraveling and inequities deepening across the nation, it’s an important time to reignite awareness around health disparities and point people toward solutions. The Zip Code Exam helps communities see the full picture — and take back the power to shape their own health outcomes and longevity.
Decades of research confirm a powerful truth: where you live affects how long you live.
In many cities, life expectancy can vary by 14 years or more between neighborhoods just a few miles apart. These gaps are not the result of individual choices alone — they’re the result of structural inequality that has taken power away from so many communities.
More than half of the root causes of health are influenced by inequalities– systemic barriers and community-level challenges, often outside of an individual’s control. These include factors such as access to healthcare, education quality, job availability, housing costs, food security, and neighborhood walkability.
With the Zip Code Exam, we’re empowering communities to activate change.
At the Equality Health Foundation, we believe systemic change begins with grassroots action. By giving people access to powerful data and practical tools, we’re helping individuals and neighbors understand what’s shaping their health — and empowering them to take action.
We’re putting powerful data into the hands of every American — and guiding them to resources while providing an interactive platform to turn insights into action.
The Zip Code Exam was inspired by the dedication and leadership of community changemakers working every day to advance health equity and well-being:
Together, these organizations and many others across America embody the power of grassroots leadership to drive systemic change.
Supporting Indigenous mothers, families, and birth workers through traditional knowledge, advocacy, and culturally centered care.
Empowering underserved communities through programs in education, employment, housing, and health.
Strengthening families and communities by providing culturally competent home healthcare and support services.
A creative collective that bridges art, culture, and social justice to promote community wellness
and healing.
The Zip Code Exam has captured national and global attention for revealing how place impacts health and longevity:
The harsh truth is that the ZIP code you’re born into has more influence on your life expectancy than your genetic code.
The CDC data shows that life expectancy varies significantly across different ZIP codes in the US, with Black Americans having a life expectancy […]
According to research, a person’s life expectancy can vary up to 20 years depending on their race, ethnicity, and neighborhood.
Our creative partners at Area 23, an IPG Health Company, earned Gold, Silver, and other honors at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; Best in Show at the Modern Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards; and a London International Award for developing this innovative platform and campaign.
