A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a systematic, collaborative process used to identify the most pressing health needs of a community and to guide planning and action to address them. The CHNA for Greater Bridgeport combines quantitative data from sources such as the U.S. Census and health surveillance systems with qualitative input from community surveys, focus groups, interviews, and access audits to understand residents’ health outcomes, lived experiences, and the social drivers of health. The assessment is conducted every three years by the Greater Bridgeport Health Improvement Alliance and is designed to inform regional priorities, hospital implementation strategies, and the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), ensuring that efforts are aligned with community-identified needs and health equity goals.

Compared with the Greater Bridgeport region overall, the City of Bridgeport experiences substantially greater social, economic, and health-related challenges. Bridgeport has a much lower median household income ($56,584) than the regional average ($76,714) and markedly higher rates of poverty, SNAP participation, and unemployment. Economic strain in Bridgeport is closely linked to higher levels of food insecurity, housing cost burden, and reliance on public assistance, with many households spending more than 30% of income on housing and a significant share reporting difficulty affording food.

Demographically, Bridgeport is more racially and ethnically diverse than the surrounding towns and has a higher proportion of residents living in language-isolated households. These factors contribute to additional barriers in accessing health care and social services, including challenges related to language access, cultural competency, and system navigation. Health outcomes and access indicators further reflect these disparities, with Bridgeport residents facing higher burdens related to chronic disease risk factors, delayed preventive care, and unmet mental health needs compared with the broader region.

In contrast, the Greater Bridgeport area overall includes several more affluent towns with higher incomes, lower poverty rates, and greater access to resources, which raises the regional averages and can mask the depth of need within Bridgeport itself. The CHNA findings highlight that while health challenges exist across the entire region, they are more concentrated and severe in the City of Bridgeport, underscoring the need for targeted strategies that prioritize city residents while maintaining regional collaboration.

2025 Community Health Needs Assessment Full Report