Disproportionately impacted communities

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Overview of changes between May 2023 and November 2024

What are disproportionately impacted communities?

Some communities in Colorado have more than their fair share of environmental exposure, which can result in higher levels of environmental health harm. The disproportionately impacted community definition created by the state legislature in 2021 identifies areas in Colorado that may experience higher environmental and health burdens, like pollution and climate change. In 2023, the state updated the definition of a disproportionately impacted community based on recommendations from the Environmental Justice Action Task Force in Section 24-4-109 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The data underlying the definition is updated annually. The last update was in November 2024.

What is in the definition? 

Colorado defines disproportionately impacted communities at the census block group scale. The census block group scale is the smallest geographic scale of data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, typically containing 600 to 3,000 people. Disproportionately impacted communities include:

• Low-income communities: Census block groups in which more than 40% of households are at or below 200% of the federal poverty line.
• Communities of color: Census block groups in which more than 40% of the population identify as anything other than non-Hispanic white.
• Housing cost-burdened communities: Census block groups in which more than 50% of households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs like rent or mortgage payments.
• Linguistically isolated communities: Census block groups in which more than 20% of the population lives in households where all adults speak a language other than English or do not speak English well.
• Communities with environmental and socioeconomic impacts: Communities in which multiple factors, including socioeconomic stressors, vulnerable populations, disproportionate environmental burdens, vulnerability to environmental degradation or climate change, and lack of public participation, may cumulatively affect public health and the environment and may contribute to persistent environmental health disparities. Cumulatively impacted communities can be presumptively identified in one of two ways:
  • They are in a census block group with a Colorado EnviroScreen score above the 80th percentile.
  • They are in a census tract that the federal Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool identifies as disadvantaged.
• Tribal lands: The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations.
• Mobile home communities: Areas that meet the Department of Local Affairs’ definition of a mobile home park.
• Historically marginalized communities: Communities with a history of environmental racism created through redlining or anti-Black, anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant, or anti-Indigenous laws, policies, or practices that continue to experience present-day environmental health disparities.