Local health departments play a critical role in promoting the overall health and well-being of communities across the country, and influxes of response-related funding and attention make it challenging to build and sustain a consistent and well-trained public health workforce. Local public health is increasingly being asked to do more for growing populations with diverse needs related to increases in chronic diseases, mental health, opioid misuse, health equity, and environmental concerns, and respond to more emergencies that are more complex with limited funding, staffing, and other resources. Given these changing dynamics, there is a need to better understand the current public health workforce.

This article describes the composition of the local public health workforce (including staffing levels, demographic characteristics, tenure, and training in public health) at the local, agency-level.