The Census Bureau released a report on Multidimensional Deprivation in the spring of 2019.  The Multidimensional Deprivation Index (MDI) consists of six dimensions: standard of living, health, education, economic security, housing quality, and neighborhood quality.  One criticism of the MDI was that the neighborhood quality dimension was based on county-level data.  In order to be considered a deprived county, the county had to be in the bottom 10 percent of counties, as measured by crime, pollution, and access to food, for at least two out of the three metrics. Six alternative neighborhood quality measures, available at the census tract or block group level, are discussed in this paper. 

In order to evaluate these different neighborhood quality measures, three criteria are examined: the geographic level at which the measure is available; the relationship of the neighborhood quality measures to several county-level social and economic characteristics; and the relationship of the neighborhood quality measures to tract level social and economic characteristics.