DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38974
title: National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Essential Workers by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 2016-2020
title: Archival Version

description: During the COVID-19 pandemic, certain occupations and industries were deemed "essential", and typically included individuals who worked in healthcare, food service, public transportation, etc. However, early on in the pandemic, while these workers faced disproportionately higher risks, they often did not receive adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), were unable to work from home, and were limited in their ability to take other precautions to safeguard their health (Chen et al., 2021). As a result, previous studies have documented higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death among essential workers compared to their non-essential worker counterparts (Selden & Berdahl, 2021; Wei et al., 2022). This dataset provides users with information on the number and proportion of essential workers in census tracts or ZIP Code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the United States over the 2016-2020 period.
description: The purpose of this study is to provide users with information on the number and proportion of essential workers in census tracts or ZIP Code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the United States over the 2016-2020 period.
description: The study team utilized an "essential" occupation designation from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) classification (American Civil Liberties Union Massachusetts, 2020), which leveraged data from the U.S. Census 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) occupation codes (United States Census Bureau, 2022c). Using this designation system, the study team quantified the number and proportion of workers by census tract and ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA) who were employed in the following "COVID-essential" occupations:

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations
Construction and extraction occupation
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupation
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupation
Material moving occupation
Production occupation
Transportation occupation
Office and administrative support occupation
Sales and related occupation
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupation
Food preparation and serving related occupation
Healthcare support occupation
Personal care and service occupation
Protective service occupations
A count of the total number of essential workers was calculated by summing the number of workers in all 14 categories living in each tract/ZCTA. The study team also created a measure of the proportion of workers in essential occupations by dividing the count of essential workers by the total civilian population (age 16+) employed in each tract/ZCTA.
description: Variables in this study include total counts of essential workers, and proportion of essential workers in the civilian employed population, per tract and ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA).
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Essential Workers by Census Tract Data
DS2: Essential Workers by ZIP Code Tabulation Area Data
description: The dataset contains one observation per Census Tract or ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA) in the 50 United States and Puerto Rico. Smallest Geographic Unit: census tract and ZIP code tabulation area
description: Users should be aware that ZIP Code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) are not equivalent to ZIP codes. ZIP codes are linear mail delivery routes created by the US Postal Service. ZIP code tabulation areas are spatial features consisting of census blocks grouped by the predominant ZIP code found on the block (United States Census Bureau, 2020).In some cases, a location's address is not the same as its ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA). For example, some ZIP codes represent single-point addresses such as large post offices or office buildings. Also, the ZIP code for an address may not match its ZCTA if the ZIP code is not the most common ZIP code on the block. See the Census Bureau's ZCTA overview (United States Census Bureau, 2023) for more information on how ZCTA boundaries are calculated.Users wanting to combine this dataset with ZIP code geocoded data must use a ZIP code to ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA) crosswalk. A crosswalk and sample code for merging the crosswalk with National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA) datasets are available in the ICPSR Linkage Library.For additional information on the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA), please visit the NaNDA website.