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The 2024 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) was conducted by the de Beaumont Foundation and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) between September 2024 and January 2025. This marks the fourth time this survey has collected data on the demographics of the government public health workforce and individual public health workers’ perspectives on key issues.

For the first time, public health agencies in U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States participated in PH WINS, using a version of the survey amended to reflect their unique contexts. The PH WINS Islands Pilot was administered from February 2025 to April 2025. Data will be released in late 2025.

View the Interactive Dashboard

Attend a Demo of the Interactive Dashboard

Key Findings

  • Educational Attainment: 22% of state and local public health workers have a degree (associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate) in public health.
  • Age and Tenure: The state and local government public health workforce is younger than ever. One-quarter (25%) are age 35 and under, more than half (54%) have been at their current agency for five years or less, and 41% have been working in public health for five years or less.
  • Staying and Leaving: More people want to stay at their agencies than in previous years, with three-quarters (75%) reporting an intention to stay in the next year. Among those planning to leave, more than a quarter (27%) plan to stay in government public health.
  • Burnout: A majority of state and local government public health workers (71%) are experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, with one in five (20%) experiencing near-constant symptoms.
  • Training Needs: The top three training needs among state and local government public health employees are budget and financial management (51%), policy engagement (40%), and systems and strategic thinking (34%). Regardless of their current proficiency, skills related to policy engagement are among the top five areas where employees want more training.
  • Community Engagement: While most employees agree that their agency is committed to infusing the community into work and actively collaborating with external organizations, fewer agree or strongly agree that their agencies regularly involve community members (75%) or prioritize their input (74%).

View a summary of the national data, available on the PH WINS dashboards.  

Watch a webinar on how to use PH WINS 2024 findings to inform policy, practice, and workforce development at every level.

PH WINS in Action

The PH WINS In Action story series shares concrete examples of how health departments can maximize their PH WINS data. Discover how health departments are transforming challenges into opportunities, leveraging the rich insights provided by PH WINS. To spotlight ways your organization has acted on its PH WINS data, please contact phwins@debeaumont.org.  

Methodology

PH WINS was developed by de Beaumont and ASTHO to understand the interests and needs of the U.S. state and local government public health workforce, and was fielded in 2014, 2017, 2021, and 2024.

The 2024 survey was distributed online to 159,627 state and local government public health workers, representing 48 state health agencies and 1,178 local health departments of varying sizes across 49 states. In total, 219 large local health departments (staff size > 25 and serving a population > 250,000), 424 medium local health departments (staff size > 25 and serving a population of 25,000 to 250,000), and 535 small local health departments (staff size < 25 or serving a population < 25,000) participated in the survey. Through partnerships with the 10 Regional Public Health Training Centers, the Big Cities Health Coalition, and the State Associations of County and City Health Officials in North Dakota, Montana, and New Jersey, the PH WINS sample size of local health departments more than quadrupled from 2021 to 2024. The survey was completed by 56,595 employees, for a 37% response rate of eligible employees.

For more information, see Behind the Numbers.

Survey and Data Access

View the 2024 PH WINS Instrument

Submit a Data Use Request

To request a special analysis, raw data to conduct your own analysis, or coaching on interpreting and acting on the results, please fill out this short form.

Please note that to protect confidentiality and anonymity of employees who took PH WINS, health departments will not be granted access to their department’s raw data.