Georgia Civic DataLow Access to SNAP-Authorized Stores (USDA 2025 Map)
Share of residents living far from any SNAP-authorized store, by tract and county: USDA's June 2025 store list, 2020 Census people.
- 2025–2025
- irregular
- 1.0.0
- f9a57b0379da
Overview
How many Georgians live far from any store authorized to accept SNAP benefits, for Georgia, its 159 counties and its 2020 census tracts, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service's 2025 SNAP-authorized Retailer Access Map (SRAM, part of the Food Access Research Atlas): the residents (2020 Census) living more than a set distance from the nearest SNAP-authorized store as of June 2025, measured in a straight line and along roads, and their share of the population. SNAP-authorized stores include convenience and dollar stores, not only supermarkets. USDA's main definition counts people more than 1 mile from a store in urban census tracts and more than 10 miles in rural tracts; two other urban/rural thresholds and four single distances (half a mile to 20 miles) are also served. County and state figures are our sums of ERS's tract counts.
Row grain: One row per year, county_fips, tract_geoid, distance_method, distance_threshold.
pct_population_low_access — Share of Residents with Low Access to a SNAP-Authorized Store (proportion)
The single headline value most answers want.
Variables
Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.
| Column | Type | Unit | Range | Null? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
year | integer | — | — | no | 2025, the date of ERS's store list (SNAP-authorized stores as of June 2025); the population is from the 2020 Census (see year_meaning). One release.Full description▾2025, the date of ERS's store list (SNAP-authorized stores as of June 2025); the population is from the 2020 Census (see year_meaning). One release. |
county_fips | string | — | — | yes | 5-digit county FIPS code (FK to the counties dimension), set on county rows. NULL on tract rows (the tracts dimension gives each tract's county) and on the Georgia row.Full description▾5-digit county FIPS code (FK to the counties dimension), set on county rows. NULL on tract rows (the tracts dimension gives each tract's county) and on the Georgia row. |
tract_geoid | string | — | — | yes | 11-digit 2020 census tract GEOID (FK to the tracts dimension), set on tract rows. NULL on county rows and the Georgia row. ERS's 2,791 Georgia tracts: the tracts dimension's 5 water-only tracts (99xxxx) have no rows, and its 7 special-use tracts with no residents (98xxxx) have rows with a population of 0.Full description▾11-digit 2020 census tract GEOID (FK to the tracts dimension), set on tract rows. NULL on county rows and the Georgia row. ERS's 2,791 Georgia tracts: the tracts dimension's 5 water-only tracts (99xxxx) have no rows, and its 7 special-use tracts with no residents (98xxxx) have rows with a population of 0. |
distance_method | string | — | — | no | How distance to the nearest SNAP-authorized store is measured; straight_line is the default.Full description▾How ERS measured the distance from where people live to the nearest SNAP-authorized store: straight_line (a straight line, 'as the crow flies') or driving (along the road network). Both measure the same residents: pick one, never add across them. Road distances are longer, so driving counts are at least the straight-line counts everywhere but one Gwinnett tract (3 fewer people beyond half a mile by road). 2 allowed values▾
|
distance_threshold | string | — | — | no | How far from a SNAP-authorized store counts as low access; 1_mile_urban_10_miles_rural is USDA's main definition.Full description▾The distance to the nearest SNAP-authorized store beyond which a resident counts as having low access. USDA's urban/rural definitions: 1_mile_urban_10_miles_rural (USDA's main definition: more than 1 mile in urban tracts, more than 10 miles in rural tracts), half_mile_urban_10_miles_rural and 1_mile_urban_20_miles_rural. One distance for every tract, urban or rural: all_tracts_half_mile, all_tracts_1_mile, all_tracts_10_miles and all_tracts_20_miles. ERS calls a tract urban when its population-weighted center lies in a Census Bureau urban area (at least 5,000 people or 2,000 housing units), rural otherwise. The thresholds nest (a resident beyond 1 mile is also beyond half a mile): pick one, never add across them. 7 allowed values▾
|
num_population_low_access | integer | — | yes | Residents (2020 Census) living beyond the distance threshold from the nearest SNAP-authorized store as of June 2025, by the row's distance_method: ERS's count for a tract; the sum of its tract counts for a county or Georgia (our calculation). ERS's tract counts are rounded estimates (people placed within the tract from population density patterns), so a 0 can be less than one person. The numerator of pct_population_low_access.Full description▾Residents (2020 Census) living beyond the distance threshold from the nearest SNAP-authorized store as of June 2025, by the row's distance_method: ERS's count for a tract; the sum of its tract counts for a county or Georgia (our calculation). ERS's tract counts are rounded estimates (people placed within the tract from population density patterns), so a 0 can be less than one person. The numerator of pct_population_low_access. | |
num_population | integer | — | yes | The 2020 Census population: ERS's tract count (equal to the tracts dimension's population_2020), summed for a county or Georgia (10,711,908). 0 on the 7 special-use tracts with no residents. The same on every distance_method and distance_threshold row of a place: never add it across them. The denominator of pct_population_low_access.Full description▾The 2020 Census population: ERS's tract count (equal to the tracts dimension's population_2020), summed for a county or Georgia (10,711,908). 0 on the 7 special-use tracts with no residents. The same on every distance_method and distance_threshold row of a place: never add it across them. The denominator of pct_population_low_access. | |
pct_population_low_access | number | — | yes | Share of residents living beyond the distance threshold from the nearest SNAP-authorized store.Full description▾Share of residents (2020 Census) living beyond the distance threshold from the nearest SNAP-authorized store as of June 2025, convenience and dollar stores included: our calculation, num_population_low_access / num_population, on the 0-1 scale (0.128 = 12.8%). Georgia at USDA's main definition (1 mile urban / 10 miles rural): 12.8% straight-line, 28.2% driving. Straight-line, 35.4% at half a mile urban / 10 miles rural, 12.8% at 1 mile urban / 20 miles rural, 59.9% beyond half a mile and 31.6% beyond 1 mile in every tract; driving, 49.5%, 28.0%, 76.1% and 51.4%. Beyond 10 miles: 1,182 people straight-line, 21,827 driving. Low access to any SNAP store, not USDA's low-income and low-access tract designation. For several places, pool as SUM(num_population_low_access) / SUM(num_population) within one method and threshold. Chattahoochee County, mostly the Fort Benning army post (23% of its residents live in group quarters), has the highest share, 56.1% straight-line and 68.1% driving, preserved as published; next are Forsyth (37.0%, 63.7%) and Fayette (35.5%, 56.8%). |
Filters
Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.
| Parameter | Kind | Allowed values | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
year | year_exact | any value | — |
year_min | year_range | any value | — |
year_max | year_range | any value | — |
detail | detail | countiesstatestracts | enum-enforced, default: counties |
county_fips | foreign_key | any value | multi-value |
tract_geoid | foreign_key | any value | multi-value |
distance_method | categorical | straight_linedriving | multi-value, enum-enforced, pick one |
distance_threshold | categorical | 7 allowed values▾
| multi-value, enum-enforced, pick one |
Example requests
Run these against the base URL — they return live data.
All rows (first page), counties level
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/food_access"counties data for 2025
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/food_access?year=2025"Filtered to distance_method = straight_line for 2025
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/food_access?year=2025&distance_method=straight_line"One county (FIPS 13117), 2025
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/food_access?county_fips=13117&year=2025&detail=counties"Download 2025 as CSV
curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/health/food_access?year=2025&format=csv"Notes & limitations
NULL handling
Limitations
Low access to any SNAP-authorized store, not to a supermarket: a resident counts when the nearest store accepting SNAP benefits in June 2025, including convenience and dollar stores, is beyond the distance. Not a 'food desert' measure, and not comparable with health/usda/food_access_2019 (supermarkets, 2010 tracts, a 2019 store list) or with USDA's low-income and low-access (LILA) tract designation. County and state rows are our sums of ERS's tract counts. One release (year 2025 labels the store list; the people are the 2020 Census population on 2020 tracts; see year_meaning). Because small stores count, rural low access nearly vanishes (1,182 Georgians live more than 10 miles from a SNAP store in a straight line, 21,827 by road) and, after Chattahoochee County (mostly the Fort Benning army post), the highest county shares are suburbs where homes are more than a mile from any store (Forsyth 37.0%, Fayette 35.5% at USDA's main definition, straight-line); 60 counties show 0 people low-access by that definition straight-line, 2 by road. Pin one distance_method (straight_line: straight-line distance; driving: along roads) and one distance_threshold (1_mile_urban_10_miles_rural: USDA's main definition, more than 1 mile in an urban census tract and more than 10 miles in a rural one): the methods measure the same people, and the thresholds nest. ERS calls a tract urban when its population-weighted center lies in a Census Bureau urban area (at least 5,000 people or 2,000 housing units). Distance runs from where ERS placed each tract's people (LandScan USA 2020 density patterns) to the nearest store and ignores whether people have a vehicle, transit, prices and store quality. Driving counts are at least the straight-line counts everywhere but one Gwinnett tract, which has 3 fewer people beyond half a mile by road. Tract counts are ERS's rounded estimates, so a 0 can be less than one person rather than nobody, and a county's sum can differ by a few people from an unrounded total. Residents of group quarters (dormitories, barracks, prisons, nursing homes: 255,178 Georgians in ERS's file) count where they live; ERS marks 15 Georgia tracts where at least 67% of residents live in group quarters. ERS suppresses nothing. The 7 special-use tracts with no residents (tract codes 98xxxx) have counts of 0 and a NULL share; the tracts dimension's 5 water-only tracts (99xxxx) are not in ERS's file and have no rows. Not served: ERS's counts for low-income people, children, seniors, race and ethnicity groups, veterans, households without a vehicle and SNAP households, its tract flags (including the LILA flags) and its tract context columns.