What is an Environmental Justice Population?
In Massachusetts, a neighborhood is defined as an Environmental Justice population if any of the following are true:
- the annual median household income is not more than 65 per cent of the statewide annual median household income;
- minorities comprise 40 per cent or more of the population;
- 25 per cent or more of households lack English language proficiency; or
- minorities comprise 25 per cent or more of the population and the annual median household income of the municipality in which the neighborhood is located does not exceed 150 per cent of the statewide annual median household income.
Additional Resources
More information on the Environmental Justice populations in Massachusetts
Additional information on the Environmental Justice populations in Massachusetts, including downloadable maps and files, can be found at this link: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-2020-us-census-environmental-justice-populations
Map of Languages Spoken in Massachusetts by at least 5% of Census Tract Population can be found here: https://mass-eoeea.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=dffdbf9c109647fc9601f7524c1fd9f4
Interactive Map
The Environmental Justice Map Viewer is an interactive map that uses population data from the 2020 Census, based upon three demographic criteria developed by the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), to show which Census 2020 block groups are classified as EJ populations.