Black and Latino Neighborhoods Lose Pharmacies at 35-38% Closure Rates

Pharmacy closures are not distributed equally across communities. USC research found that retail pharmacy closure rates were 37.5% in Black neighborhoods and 35.6% in Latino neighborhoods, compared to 27.7% in predominantly white neighborhoods. The disparity is even starker when income is factored in: 47.7% of low-income Black neighborhoods became pharmacy deserts compared to 40.3% of low-income white neighborhoods. Over 80% of Black and Hispanic residents nationally live in areas where pharmacy deserts are more common. This racial disparity in pharmacy access compounds existing health disparities that are already costing lives. Black Americans have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease -- conditions that require consistent medication adherence to manage. When the nearest pharmacy is miles away and requires a car, a bus transfer, or a half-day off work, prescriptions go unfilled. Unfilled prescriptions become uncontrolled blood pressure, diabetic crises, and preventable strokes. The pharmacy desert does not create these diseases, but it removes the most accessible intervention point for managing them. The racial dimension is not coincidental. Historically redlined neighborhoods have fewer healthcare facilities of all kinds, including pharmacies. Chain pharmacies make location decisions based on profitability metrics that favor affluent, high-traffic areas. When chains like Rite Aid go bankrupt or CVS and Walgreens close hundreds of stores, the locations selected for closure are disproportionately in lower-income, majority-minority neighborhoods where per-prescription revenue is lower and shoplifting losses may be higher. This problem persists because pharmacy location decisions are driven entirely by private-sector economics with no public obligation to maintain access equity. Unlike hospitals, which face community benefit requirements and certificate-of-need regulations in many states, pharmacies can open and close at will. There is no regulatory mechanism to prevent a pharmacy desert from forming in a vulnerable community, and no public funding mechanism to sustain pharmacy access where the market will not.