NHPI Data Policy Lab

Decades of gaps in data have perpetuated and exacerbated health inequities among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated disparities in access to health care and other resources, and most strikingly across the diverse racial and ethnic groups across the United States. It not only devastated communities, it illuminated the inequities in our health care system. For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) — who saw among the highest rates of infection of any race and ethnicity — a lack of disaggregated race and ethnicity data made them invisible. So how does a group which has often been masked by a lack of meaningful data become unhidden?

Working with scholars and advocates throughout the country, in August 2020, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) launched the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Policy Lab to address striking gaps within data and research for NHPIs including the need to increase the number of states reporting disaggregated NHPI COVID-19 cases and calling attention to NHPIs experiencing the highest COVID-19 rates of any racial and ethnic group in various states across the country. 

Since its founding, the Lab has expanded its project reach to beyond the pandemic, working to provide accessible tools on the overall health and health needs of the NHPI community. Working alongside community organizations and through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, and AAPI Data, the NHPI Data Policy Lab has created various tools aimed at closing decades of data gaps that have perpetuated and exacerbated health inequities among NHPI communities.