Geography Component

FoodAPS included a geographic component to investigate how local food environments affect food spending patterns in the United States. The FoodAPS Geography component (FoodAPS-GC) builds upon the FoodAPS survey data with the collection of data on the local food environment in the 50 primary sampling units (PSUs) in the survey. Information collected through the FoodAPS-GC includes the location of different types of retailers, measures of access to these retailers, measures of food prices and prices of food categories by retailers, as well as information about socio-demographic and food-related policies.

Data for all 50 FoodAPS PSUs are provided at different geographic levels—census block groups, census tracts, and counties—depending upon the availability of data. The geographic data can be linked to the survey respondents and made available on a restricted basis to approved data users on a secure data enclave.

FoodAPS-GC data are available in two separate files—the first file includes data on retail location, food store access, socio-demographic data, and food policy data. Details about the data and data sources can be found in the Retail Environment Study Codebook. A list of variables in the retail file is also available. The second file contains data on retail food prices which allows users to compare prices across different store types and different geographical locations. The following documents provide additional detail about FoodAPS-GC data and are available for download:

1) Retail Environment Study Codebook

• Variable List: Retail Environment Study

2) Construction of Weekly Store-Level Food Basket Costs: Documentation