SHADAC has updated our brief on estimates of state-provided funding for the State Health Compare measure, “Public Health Funding.” Though this updated brief highlights state public health funding data from 2011–2020, data is available on the State Health Compare website for every year, starting in 2005 (with the exception of data year 2006 for which no estimates are available).

Efforts to monitor state public health funding play an important role in this environment of scarce public health resources. Information about relative state public health funding levels—taken together with other data such as the relative performance of each state on other public health indicators (e.g., disease prevalence) and the comparative reliance of each state on federal funding—indicates which states are best situated to absorb a potential decrease in federal support and which states would be hit hardest by a potential decrease, as well as where limited resources can be most effectively distributed among the states. Additionally, information about state public health funding levels relative both to one another and to relative trends in state public health funding over time can be important data points for protecting public funding during state budget discussions, where this funding is often at risk because it is generally discretionary.

Click here for the previous version of this brief (data years 2015-2019).