Researchers from the COVID States Project developed an interactive dashboard to explore public behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, support for restrictive measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, and approval for state governors’ and the president’s handling of the pandemic.

The dashboard presents data from a series of large-scale monthly surveys with approximately 20,000-25,000 participants each.

Users can engage with state and national data in the following ways:

Health Behaviors: This tab presents public health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has three separate panels. The first shows core activities such as going to work, church, or the gym. The second shows whether respondents were in close proximity with people living outside their household. Finally, the third panel presents data on public adherence to health recommendations aimed at curtailing the spread of the pandemic. These recommendations include mask wearing, hand washing, avoiding contact with other people, and staying away from crowds and public spaces. Users can select their state of interest and the three panels will automatically update to reflect the selected state.


Restrictive Measures: Restrictive Measures: The second tab presents data on public support for federal, state and local governments to implement restrictive measures meant to curtail the spread of the virus, such as limiting restaurants to carry-out service only or requiring businesses to close.


Executive Approval: This tab tracks public approval of state governors and the president. A vertical line indicates the transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration on January 20, 2021. Prior to that point, presidential approval numbers refer to Donald Trump, while subsequent data points refer to Joe Biden. Users can select the state and the official (Governor/President) they would like to view.


Maps: This tab generates state-level choropleth maps for the data presented in the dashboard. The  tab contains two subpanels: one for health behavior and another for  restrictive measure support. Within each panel, users should also specify  the month that they are interested in viewing. Below these maps, users will find bar charts comparing the data from each state and ranking states in the context of the behavior or measure of interest.


All graphics in this app can be downloaded in a PDF or PNG format using the “Download” buttons in the respective tab. Users who are interested in downloading the underlying data can find it in a CSV format at the bottom of the Overview tab.

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