While Santa Clara County residents are healthier than residents of other counties in California, wide health disparities persist among different socioeconomic groups and across geographies in the County. For example, the average Asian resident can expect to live 8.6 years longer than the average African American resident. Likewise, residents of Los Altos can expect to live nearly 12 years longer than residents of Morgan Hill (bit.ly/healthburden).

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The County of Santa Clara plays a pivotal role in the health and well-being of the community and strives to create better places to live, work, and play.  Challenges to a sustainable community often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and contribute to the wide health disparities in the County. These challenges include: barriers to preventive health services, housing insecurity, lack of resources to provide a robust social safety net, ineffective civic engagement, and unequal opportunities for education and self-improvement. The health and well-being of Santa Clara County residents and workers will also be shaped by climate change. The impacts of more frequent heat waves, rising sea levels, intensifying coastal flooding, increased vector-borne diseases, and increasing wildfire risk will pose threats to communities across the county. Historically marginalized communities, including older adults, people with disabilities, minorities, outdoor workers, linguistically isolated households, people without healthcare and people with chronic medical conditions will face increased stresses from climate change.