New interactive Elder Index dashboard

Find data on the economic status of seniors in all 58 California counties using our new Elder IndexTM online dashboard. The Elder Index is a more accurate measure of how much it costs seniors to live in California than outdated federal poverty level (FPL) guidelines that ignore regional differences in living costs.

The user-friendly dashboard enables you to quickly find estimates on how much money it takes for California's elderly to make ends meet at the local level. The new format includes information on 6 new family types of senior households for a total of 12 different household arrangements, ranging from a single elder living alone to complex 3-generation households.

You can search, sort and compare data using simple pull-down menus for categories such as county of interest, household type (renter or owner), and whether adult children or grandchildren are part of the household.

The resulting visuals include an at-a-glance county snapshot, a bar chart that compares your county result to other counties in the state, and a thematic map to show regional cost trends. The information can be downloaded as a PDF or an Excel spreadsheet.

"This is the most comprehensive online collection of data on the economic well-being of California seniors," said D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto, Center graduate student researcher. "And this new tool makes it even easier to see how inadequate current poverty measures are in high-cost states like California."

Padilla-Frausto spearheaded the effort to make the Index more accessible in collaboration with California Health Interview Survey Project Coordinator Bogdan Rau. 

Search the new Elder Index dashboard here. 

The Elder Index is a tool developed by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. The Center improves the public's health through high-quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. The Center is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. For more information, visit www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu.

About the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. For more information, visit healthpolicy.ucla.edu.