Pick any of 850+ professions, then choose what to map: how many people do that job per 1,000 residents, its median pay, or both (BLS OEWS, by metro area).
Choosing an industry clears the profession above, and choosing a profession resets this. Ranks counties by the share of their private-sector jobs in that industry (Census County Business Patterns 2023; government jobs and farms aren’t counted). Counts as one criterion.
Recreation & Lifestyle
Pick the activities you care about. Each counts like a metric: counties rank by how much of it is within reach, like golf courses within 30 miles or ski areas within 90.
Quick tips
ONFlip a switch ON to rank every county on that metric. Each one you turn on counts equally.
TargetOr drag its slider to set a target. Counties score by how close they come.
RequiredTap the lock to make a target required. Counties that miss it drop out.
≤ / ≥Some metrics have a ≤ / ≥ button beside their name: tap it to switch the target between at most and at least.
Tap the info icon beside a metric to see where its data comes from and which direction is better.
Tap any county on the map, or pick one from Standings to view its detailed metrics.
Match
Match0%100%
No data
≈ Metro-wide
Settings
Heatmap Gradient
Low
Mid
High
Palettes( = colorblind-safe)
Selection Color
Active County Border
Display
Light Mode
Language
Areas
Customize AreasAll
Excluded counties
Alt-clickLong-press a county on the map to exclude just that one.
System
County Heatmap
How it works & data sources
County Heatmap colors every US county by how well it matches what you switch on, using 79 metrics across 7 categories, plus 16 activities and 850+ professions.
Off: every metric starts off, so the map starts blank.
On: counties are ranked on that metric nationwide. The ⓘ says whether lower or higher is better.
Target: drag the slider to set a goal; counties score by how close they come.
Required: lock a target to drop every county that misses it.
Match % is the plain average of everything you switched on. Each metric, activity and profession metric counts equally. A locked target is a must-have: it decides which counties are in and doesn't count toward the average. A county missing data is scored on the rest, never as zero; missing everything shows hatched.
Areas (in Settings) removes or keeps only chosen states and counties. Alt-click or long-press a county on the map to remove just that one.
Other maps (in the ☰ menu): Versus sets one number against another, like home prices against local pay, and ranks every county on the result. Overlay lays two maps on top of each other and shows how alike they are.
History plays some metrics year by year on one color scale, and Versus → Change maps how much they rose or fell between two years. Each map prints its caveats and any change in method.
Questions
What is County Heatmap?
A free map that colors every US county by how well it matches what you care about. Switch on the metrics that matter to you, like home prices, summer heat, commute or life expectancy, and the map recolors live.
How is the match score calculated?
Each metric you switch on is scored from 0 to 100% for every county: by its rank among all counties, or, if you set a target, by how close the county comes to it. The match score is the plain average of those scores, so every metric counts equally. A locked target is a must-have: counties that miss it are left out, and it doesn't count toward the average.
Where does the data come from?
Public sources: the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, NOAA, CDC, CMS, the Department of Education, OpenStreetMap and others. Every metric's info button names its source and year.
How up to date is it?
Each metric uses the most recent county-level release available, mostly 2024 and 2025. The exact year is shown in each metric's info button.
Why do some counties show no data?
When a source doesn't publish a value for a county, for example because no police agency there reported crime figures, that county shows as no data instead of a guess.
Is it free? Can I share my map?
Yes. There's no account and no ads. Your whole setup is saved in the link, so sharing the link shares your exact map, and you can download a high-resolution image of it.
Every metric comes from a public dataset. Where a source doesn't cover a county well enough to trust, it shows N/A instead of a guess.
Across most categories
US Census ACS (2020–2024): population, income, home values, rent, electricity bills, demographics, commute, broadband
Cost & Housing
BEA Regional Price Parities 2024: overall cost of living (% above or below the US average), per metro area (one figure for each state’s rural counties)
US Dept. of Labor, National Database of Childcare Prices 2022: child care (center-based, preschool age)
Tax Foundation & Census: state income, sales and property tax rates
Jobs & Career
Census County Business Patterns 2023: jobs per 1,000 residents and jobs by industry
BLS OEWS (May 2025): jobs and salaries for 850+ professions, by metro area
BLS LAUS: 2025 unemployment and job growth since 2019
Climate & Environment
PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State: July highs, January lows and precipitation (1991–2020 normals, 800 m grid, averaged over where each county's people live)
NOAA NCEI: days of 90°F+, freezing days and snowfall (1991–2020 climate normals, closest station with a matching climate; also July highs, January lows and precipitation in Alaska and Hawaii)
US Drought Monitor: share of weeks in severe drought or worse, 2000–2025
NASA POWER: sunny days (satellite cloud cover, 2016–2025) and summer dew point (2001–2020)
FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (Dec 2025): expected natural-disaster damage per $100k of property, 17 hazards
CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking: fine-particle air pollution (PM2.5), monitors + EPA model, 2016/2019/2020 average
Census TIGER/Line: distance to the coast
USGS 3DEP: terrain relief (grid-sampled)
Education & Health
Census ACS (2020–2024): high-school, bachelor’s and graduate degrees (adults 25+)
NCES: student-teacher ratio; colleges within 30 miles (IPEDS 2024)
Stanford Education Data Archive: 3rd-grade math; 8th-grade math and reading (SEDA 6.0, 2016–2019)
US Dept. of Education EDFacts (via County Health Rankings 2025): on-time high-school graduation rate
CDC Lyme disease surveillance: reported cases per 100,000, 2022–2023
IMLS (via County Health Rankings, March 2026 release): library visits
County Health Rankings (March 2026 release; 2025 for parks access): primary care, dentists, mental-health providers, life expectancy (NCHS), uninsured (Census SAHIE), access to parks & recreation
CMS Hospital data (July 2026): hospitals within 25 miles and their star ratings
Transit & Connectivity
FAA & BTS: drive time to the nearest commercial airport (FAA 2025) and international airport (BTS T-100 2025)
Census ACS & Gazetteer: drive time to the nearest city of 250,000+
EPA Smart Location Database (2021): street intersections per square mile, averaged by population
Community & Safety
FBI UCR (via CHR 2022): violent crime per 1,000; 102 counties CHR leaves blank use FBI Crime Data Explorer reports instead (2025, or 2024 for 4; marked ≈)
FBI Crime Data Explorer (2025 NIBRS): property crime; 2,777 of 3,143 counties report
2024 certified results: Democratic, Republican and third-party vote shares (Alaska reports by district, so N/A)
Census ACS (table B03002): race and ethnicity, all eight census groups
Census Population Estimates (vintage 2025): net domestic migration, 2021–2025 average
Recreation & Lifestyle
NASA Black Marble (2016): night lights, for the drive to dark skies
Census TIGER/Line 2020: lakes, reservoirs and rivers
USGS PAD-US 4.1: public parks and protected areas
Census County Business Patterns 2023: activities: ski areas, bars, breweries, casinos and more within 30 or 90 miles (restaurants and arts venues per 10k use the 2021 edition)
Census 2020 centers of population: where “within reach” is measured from
History & Change maps
Census Population Estimates: population, 2000–2025; net, domestic and international migration and natural increase (births minus deaths), 2011–2025
Census Population Estimates by race, Hispanic origin and age: share and number of Hispanic or Latino residents, of six race groups (not Hispanic) and of residents 65 and older, 2000–2025
Census SAIPE: household income (in 2025 dollars), poverty and child poverty, 1997–2024
BLS LAUS: unemployment, 1990–2025
Census SAHIE: uninsured under 65, 2008–2024
Census ACS 5-year: home value and rent (in 2025 dollars), 2009–2024; broadband, 2017–2024
Census County Business Patterns: jobs per 1,000 residents, 2000–2023
County Health Rankings trends: PM2.5, 2002–2020; primary care doctors, 2010–2021; dentists, 2010–2022
NOAA nClimDiv: July highs, January lows and precipitation, 10-year averages from 1896–1905 to 2016–2025
NASA POWER: sunny days, 2001–2025
US Drought Monitor: severe drought, 2000–2025
County presidential results: Democratic vote share, 2008–2024
Free to use with credit to countyheatmap.com and the original source. See Using this data.
Not scored: each county's top cities (Census Population Estimates 2024). Exact data years are in each metric's ⓘ. Connecticut replaced its 8 counties with planning regions in 2022, and most sources followed. For those 8 counties: Census figures come from ACS 2017–2021; cost of living is blended from the planning regions, weighted by town population; vote shares from the 2020 election; unemployment and job growth are summed from BLS figures for their 169 towns; jobs and industries from Census Business Patterns 2021; uninsured, mental-health providers and park access from the 2024 County Health Rankings; property crime from police agencies placed by location (Tolland and Windham too sparse, so N/A); library visits and student-teacher ratio are estimated from planning-region figures, weighted by town population. Valdez-Cordova, AK (split in 2019) uses ACS 2014–2018.
