About the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Welcome to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

With an annual budget of $1.6 billion and more than 7,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, we are one of the largest public health agencies in the world. We are also the nation's oldest municipal public health agency, with over two centuries of leadership in the field.

Every day, we protect and promote the health of more than 8 million New Yorkers by providing essential health services, promoting public health initiatives, preventing the spread of disease, and many other unseen efforts that keep our city safe and healthy.

The work that we do is broad ranging. You see us in the inspection grades of dining establishments, the licenses dogs wear, the low- to no-cost health clinics in your neighborhood, and the birth certificates for our youngest New Yorkers.

We are also behind the scenes with our disease detectives, investigating suspicious clusters of illness. Our epidemiologists study the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in New York City neighborhoods. These studies shape policy decisions and the City's health agenda.

The challenges we face are many. They range from inequitable life expectancy to infectious disease, tobacco control, substance use, and the threat of climate change. The New York City Health Department is tackling these issues with innovative policies and programs, and getting exceptional results.

We are also committed to addressing health inequities across communities, working to ensure equitable access to services and extending life expectancy for all New Yorkers. Our focus is on making sure every New Yorker, regardless of immigration status, ability to pay, or ability to speak English, has access to the health information and care they need to live and thrive.

Our Commitment to Health Equity

The NYC Health Department promotes and protects the health of all New Yorkers so everyone can lead healthy lives, regardless of who they are, where they are from, or where they live.

We recognize that historic and contemporary injustices in government, health care, and other institutions have deepened distrust and contributed to individual and collective trauma, while exacerbating inequities across health conditions.

We acknowledge that Black, Latino, Indigenous, and all people of color continue to experience and resist the daily impact and reality of years of disinvestment, racism, biased treatment, and oppression.

We are committed to addressing structural racism and all forms of oppression, centering justice within our organization, and ensuring antiracist practices are embedded and operationalized throughout our agency.

Through the implementation of community-centered public health solutions, we aim to eliminate health inequities and increase to its highest-ever level the life expectancy of all our city’s residents.

In October 2021, the New York City Board of Health passed a resolution that declared racism as a public health crisis.

Our History

2025 marks the 220th anniversary of the New York City Health Department.

On January 17, 1805, the Common Council (the predecessor to today’s NYC Council) appointed a New York City Board of Health, which consisted of three state-appointed health commissioners.

Another big moment came on February 26, 1866, when the New York State legislature passed a new public health law that created the Metropolitan Board of Health, the first municipal public health authority in the U.S. The new Board unified surrounding cities and encompassed Kings, Richmond, Westchester, part of Queens, and New York counties.

Both of these milestones were born of efforts to combat infectious epidemics — yellow fever in the early 1800s and cholera in the mid-1800s.

Our third major milestone occurred on April 5, 1870, when New York State passed legislation that created the Department of Health, which now granted the Mayor authority to appoint the Commissioner. The Health Department was separate from the new Board of Health, which would operate as its overseeing body.

Historical Timeline

• 1804: New York City Inspector’s Office established to track mortality statistics
• 1805: NYC Board of Health created to combat yellow fever
• 1842: NYC begins reliable access to fresh water from the Croton reservoir
• 1866: New public health law passed, creating the Metropolitan Board of Health, uniting New York county with surrounding counties
• 1870: Department of Health, most similar to present-day NYC Health, is created, with four administrative bureaus and a Board of Health to oversee it
• 1870s: Commissioner Chandler appoints first milk inspector, opens laboratory
• 1884: Department of Health creates Division of Food Inspection and Offensive Trades
• 1892: Health Department opens Bacteriological Laboratory, first municipal laboratory in the world to routinely diagnose disease
• 1895: Health Department begins offering diphtheria antitoxin free of charge to poor New Yorkers
• 1900: 810,000 New Yorkers vaccinated in smallpox vaccination campaign
• 1901: Health Department workers drain areas   in outer boroughs to fight malaria
• 1904: Health Department opens tuberculosis clinics; municipal sanitorium opened in 1906
• 1906: Health Department begins inspection of dairies
• 1907: “Typhoid Mary” is traced, confined at North Brother Island 
• 1915: Health Districts proposed; begins as pilot project on Lower East Side  
• 1915: Bureau of Public Health Education created; begins printing publications, producing films to disseminate health information
• 1916: Department imposes quarantines and sets up clinics during polio epidemic
• 1919: Commissioner Copeland sets up innovative drug treatment program 
• 1921: First District Health Center (later renamed “Action Centers”) opens in Harlem under new Health District plan
• 1926: Chest X-rays begin at TB clinics 
• 1928: Bureau of Nursing created
• 1934: Bureau of Social Hygiene created to combat venereal diseases  
• 1935: Health Department headquarters built at 125 Worth Street 
• 1936: “Premature Centers” and ambulance service created for premature infants
• 1942: Bureau of Records microfilms all birth and death records in case New York City is attacked in World War II
• 1946: Food Inspection Bureau cracks down on poor restaurant sanitation  
• 1947: 6.3 million New Yorkers vaccinated against smallpox in a single month
• 1949: Department establishes Bureau of Nutrition 
• 1954: Salk polio vaccine tested in New York
• 1955: Department establishes Poison Control Center with hotline
• 1960: NYC ban on interior lead-based paint goes into effect
• 1965: Department opens maternal care clinics with family planning services  
• 1969: Department begins lead poisoning prevention program, which becomes a bureau in 1970
• 1976: Landlords required to install window guards in apartments with children; law reduces window fall deaths by more than 98 percent
• 1981: NYC disease detectives begin to track spread of AIDS epidemic  
• 1983: Department creates Office of Gay and Lesbian Health
• 1985: Health Department begins offering free anonymous AIDS tests  
• 1988: Health Department implements needle exchange program to curb HIV spread among people who use drugs
• 1991: Program   begins to improve asthma treatment for city’s children 
• 1996: Tuberculosis control efforts, first begun in 1992, drastically reduce cases in city  
• 1995: Animal Control Center launches
• 1999: Department’s disease detectives track West Nile virus  
• 2001: Department responds to September 11 attacks and anthrax threats post-9/11
• 2001: World Trade Center Health Registry created to track long-term impacts associated with 9/11
• 2002:  Merger creates Department of Health and Mental Hygiene  
• 2003: NYC restaurants and bars become smoke-free  
• 2003: Additional District Health Centers (later renamed “Action Centers”) open in Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx  
• 2004: Take Care New York, an initiative to improve health and reduce health disparities, launches
• 2005: Establishment of the Rat Academy to combat rodents in NYC 
• 2007: Health Department begins distributing free NYC Condoms to New Yorkers 
• 2010: Restaurant grading begins in New York City

Additional Resources

• The NYC Health Department’s Strategic Plan: Mission, Vision and Values (PDF)
• Agency Organization Chart (PDF)
• Chronology of the Department, 1866 – 1966 (PDF)
• Protecting Public Health in New York City: 200 Years of Leadership (PDF)
• Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health: The Living City
• Mayor's Office of Operations: NYC Capital Projects Dashboard