After life expectancy in Chicago dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) set out to understand what recovery looked like — and what was driving the differences across neighborhoods and populations. The result was the 2023 Life Expectancy Data Brief, a data-driven snapshot showing how Chicagoans gained back an average of 3.5 years since 2020, nearly returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Using the Chicago Health Atlas, powered by Metopio, CDPH combined death records, census data, and cause-of-death classifications to visualize the trends behind the numbers — revealing how some areas and groups are improving faster than others, and which causes of death have changed the most.

In this 30-minute session, CDPH and Metopio walk through how the data brief was created, what data powered it, how the Atlas made it public and actionable, and how other organizations can replicate this step-by-step process to communicate results and build stronger community partnerships.

Watch the replay today!