North Dakota Compass recently launched the 2021 State Legislative District Profiles. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the indicators included in the legislative profiles take on additional meaning by providing information about the pandemic risk factors and revealing the potential disproportionate impact that the pandemic may have on North Dakota’s communities.
In this article, Ina Cernusca, ND Compass Project Director, draws attention to the large variation in individual and household characteristics among North Dakota’s districts that suggest a differential approach in trying to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on North Dakota’s communities. While these are pre-pandemic data, they help to better understand the risk of specific population groups and communities and provide information about how individuals and households within a community may recover from the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic.