Supermarkets are one of the most popular and convenient ways in which Americans gain access to healthy food, such as fresh meat and fish, or fresh fruits and vegetables.

There are various ways in which people gain access to supermarkets. People in the suburbs drive to supermarkets and load up the car with many bags of food. People in cities depend much more on walking to the local store, or taking a bus or train.

This map came about after asking a simple question: how many Americans live within a reasonable walk or drive to a supermarket?

In this case, "reasonable" was defined as a 10 minute drive, or a 1 mile walk. The ArcGIS Network Analyst extension performed the calculations on NAVTEQ streets, and the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension created a heat map of the walkable access and drivable access to supermarkets.

The green dots represent populations in poverty who live within one mile of a supermarket. The red dots represent populations in poverty who live beyond a one mile walk to a supermarket, but may live within a 10 minute drive...assuming they have access to a car. The grey dots represent the total population in a given area.

This is an excellent map to use as backdrop to show how people are improving access to healthy food in their community. Open this map in ArcGIS Explorer to add your favorite farmers' market, CSA, or transit line -- then share that map via Facebook, Twitter or email.

This map shows data for the entire U.S. The supermarkets included in the analysis have annual sales of $1 million or more. Populations in poverty are represented by taking the block group poverty rate (e.g. 10%) from the Census and symbolizing each block in that block group based on that percentage. Demographic data from U.S. Census 2010 and Esri Business location from infoUSA

Data sources: see this map package.

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