An Analysis of the 100 Worst US Metropolitan Areas to Live with Spring Allergies

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) estimates that more than 50 million Americans are living with seasonal nasal allergies (allergic rhinitis). This prompted an annual study conducted by the AAFA to determine the 100 worst metropolitan areas to live for spring allergy sufferers using the following three metrics to quantify “suffering”:

• The pollen score for each metropolitan area that is created by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI).
• Allergy medication purchases in each metropolitan area
• The availability of board-certified allergists in each metropolitan area

AAFA combined the three measures in a summary "suffer score" for each of the 100 metropoitan areas.  This blog post displays the scores in different ways on two maps.  On the first map, each point represents a different metropolitan area. The color of each point indicates whether a metropolitan area’s suffer score was above average, average, or below average when compared to all 100 metropolitan areas.  On the second, the country is divided into four regions and the scores within a region are compared to the average score for that region. The author briefly dscribes a potential future map depicting areas of greatest improvement in seasonal allergy suffering.