Equity Index
The Equity Index is a nationally recognized interactive mapping tool showing how access to opportunity is distributed in Tacoma to help facilitate data-driven decision-making processes.
Tacoma’s Equity Index
It is a significant part of our strategy to transform to an antiracist city and realize the City’s strategic goals, council priorities, department initiatives, and other assessments. There are 34 indicators, which are used to assess community strengths and disparities and help identify how we can make investments to increase access to opportunity and interrupt inequity.
We are still feeling the effects of decades of intentional disinvestment that harmed communities of color at disproportional rates. To transform into an antiracist city and reverse the inequities caused by the negative impacts of racist policies, practices and zoning, will take diligence, persistent determination, and intentional antiracist management of investment.
How Tacoma Uses the Equity Index
The City of Tacoma uses the Equity Index to identify, track, and close disparities, and prioritize investments based on where and who has access to opportunity, for example opportunity to safely walk to school, opportunity to earn a living wage job, opportunity to access healthy food and opportunity to have safe and health environmental interactions.
Simply put, a resident who has access to many transit routes has higher opportunity and accessibility than a resident who has access to limited routes and no sidewalks.
There are 34 indicators, which are used to assess community strengths and disparities and help identify how we can make investments to increase access to opportunity and interrupt inequity.
