Town-level tick-risk data for 5,688 towns across the 9 states of the U.S. Census Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont), plus county-level establishment status for the three tick species of public-health concern.
Maintained by TickZone, a free daily tick-risk forecast for every town in the Northeast. This dataset is the open snapshot behind the site.
One row per town, with place identifiers and geography.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
town, state, state_name, county |
Place identifiers |
slug |
URL slug used on tickzone.app |
lat, lng |
Town centroid |
land_area_sq_mi, population |
U.S. Census values |
tickzone_url |
Live town page, where the current daily risk score is published |
The environmental inputs and computed daily risk score that power TickZone are not included in this file. They change daily and are served live at the linked tickzone_url for each town; see tickzone.app/methodology for how the score is calculated.
Per-county establishment status for the three tick species, derived from CDC surveillance data with curated overrides.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
state_slug, county_slug |
County identifiers |
deer_tick_ixodes_scapularis |
Blacklegged / deer tick (Lyme, anaplasmosis, babesiosis) |
american_dog_tick_dermacentor_variabilis |
American dog tick (Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia) |
lone_star_tick_amblyomma_americanum |
Lone star tick (ehrlichiosis, alpha-gal syndrome) |
Values: established, reported, or none.
The risk score combines three daily-varying signals gated by county Lyme incidence:
- County baseline: CDC Lyme disease incidence for the county.
- Habitat signal: forest cover and forest-edge density per town, from 10 m ESA WorldCover satellite land cover.
- Weather favorability: daily temperature, humidity, and vapor-pressure deficit conditions for tick questing activity.
Full methodology, including how the signals are combined and banded, is published at tickzone.app/methodology.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Free to use, including commercially. Please attribute TickZone.
TickZone (2026). Northeast Tick Risk Dataset. https://tickzone.app
- Town scores and habitat features: TickZone model, ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m), U.S. Census TIGER/Line and population estimates.
- Tick species establishment: U.S. CDC tick surveillance, with curated state overrides.
- Lyme incidence baselines: U.S. CDC.