Baytown's health, by the numbers: the starkest gap is insurance

Where the numbers come from

The CDC's PLACES project estimates 40 health measures for nearly every city and town in the country, using national health surveys and local population data. The 2025 release covers mostly 2023, with a few measures from 2022. These are modeled estimates, not head counts, and each comes with a range; Baytown's uninsured rate, for example, is somewhere between about 23.6 and 28.4 percent.

We compare Baytown with Harris County and with the CDC's own national estimate, both from the same release. The Texas figures are our calculation: every Texas county's estimate weighted by its adult population. All figures are crude rates, the share of adults as they are, not adjusted for age.

Several measures count what people were told by a doctor or nurse, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Where fewer people see a doctor, those numbers can undercount the illness that is really there.

Insurance and care

• No health insurance, adults 18 to 64: Baytown 25.9 percent, Harris County 21.3, Texas 19.1, U.S. 11.0.
• Routine checkup in the past year: Baytown 71.9 percent, Harris County 73.2, Texas 73.8, U.S. 77.7.
• Dental visit in the past year: Baytown 47.6 percent, Harris County 50.1, Texas 54.6, U.S. 63.9.

The starkest gap between Baytown and the country is not a disease.

It is insurance.

Conditions

• Diagnosed diabetes: Baytown 14.0 percent of adults, Texas 12.7, U.S. 12.0.
• Obesity, by self-reported height and weight: Baytown 39.5 percent, Texas 35.6, U.S. 32.8.
• Diagnosed high blood pressure: Baytown 33.7 percent, Texas 33.1, U.S. 34.4.
• High cholesterol, among adults who have been screened: Baytown 35.5 percent, Texas 35.1, U.S. 37.4.
• Diagnosed coronary heart disease: Baytown 6.0 percent, Texas 5.6, U.S. 6.4.
• Current asthma: Baytown 9.8 percent, Texas 9.5, U.S. 9.8.
• COPD: Baytown 6.7 percent, Texas 5.7, U.S. 6.2.

Habits

• Current smoking: Baytown 15.0 percent, Texas 12.5, U.S. 11.4.
• No leisure-time physical activity: Baytown 30.4 percent, Texas 27.8, U.S. 24.5.
• Less than seven hours of sleep: Baytown 41.4 percent, Texas 38.2, U.S. 36.0.

What stands out

The starkest gap between Baytown and the country is not a disease. It is insurance. A Baytown adult under 65 is more than twice as likely as the average American to have no coverage. In raw percentage points, the dental gap is about as wide: fewer than half of Baytown adults saw a dentist in the past year, against nearly two-thirds nationally.

Diagnosed diabetes, obesity and smoking are higher here than the national rate. Against Texas, the gaps for diabetes and obesity are within the estimates' margin of error.

Much of the rest is close to average. Diagnosed high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and asthma all sit within a point or two of the national figures. Because those are counts of diagnoses, and fewer Baytown adults get checkups, the true picture may be somewhat worse.

Baytown is younger than the country as a whole; the city's budget puts the median age at about 34.5. On most measures here, the CDC's age-adjusted estimates for Baytown are the same or slightly higher than the crude numbers, for example 6.1 percent for heart disease and 34.1 percent for high blood pressure, though adjusted high cholesterol is lower, at 33.7.

Read the fine print

• PLACES numbers are model-based estimates for the whole city, not a survey of Baytown alone.
• The Texas figures are our population-weighted averages of the CDC's county estimates, not an official state rate. The uninsured measure covers adults 18 to 64, but the weights use all adults.
• Dental visits and sleep come from 2022 survey data; the rest are 2023.

Before you go

• Open enrollment for marketplace health coverage at HealthCare.gov runs from November 1 to January 15; enroll by December 15 for coverage that starts January 1, and check whether you qualify for help paying premiums.
• Harris County residents can ask Harris Health whether they qualify for its financial assistance program.
• A routine checkup is where screening for diabetes and high blood pressure usually happens; ask a clinician which screenings fit you.

More Baytown by the numbers: Crime in Baytown, by the numbers: down from the 2022 peak, still above nearby suburbs; Goose Creek CISD by the numbers: a 96 percent graduation rate, and the test scores behind it; Most Baytown-area flood claims came from outside the flood zone.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, 2025 release (https://www.cdc.gov/places/)
• CDC PLACES county and national data, 2025 release (https://data.cdc.gov/resource/swc5-untb.json)
• City of Baytown, FY2027 Adopted Budget, demographics (https://www.baytown.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1317)
• HealthCare.gov, dates and deadlines (https://www.healthcare.gov/quick-guide/dates-and-deadlines/)
• Harris Health, financial assistance (https://www.harrishealth.org/patients-hh/Pages/charity-care.aspx)

En español

Cerca de 1 de cada 4 adultos de 18 a 64 años en Baytown no tiene seguro médico, según estimaciones de los CDC, más del doble del promedio nacional. Menos adultos de Baytown fueron a un chequeo o al dentista en el último año que en el resto del país, y más tienen diabetes diagnosticada. En presión alta, enfermedades del corazón y colesterol diagnosticados, Baytown se parece al promedio nacional. La inscripción abierta en HealthCare.gov va del 1 de noviembre al 15 de enero, y los residentes del condado de Harris pueden preguntar a Harris Health si califican para su programa de asistencia financiera.