Prepared for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services by Fluoro-Spec Inc. (DetectLead), September 2026.
Where the lead paint is in Nebraska, county by county and house by house.
Nebraska's own statewide parcel records carry a build year for 722,455 properties across all 93 counties. This page puts them on one map, colored by lead-paint era, down to the individual lot. It also adds Census housing age, child population, and the DetectLead risk model by ZIP, so the people doing home visits and blood-lead follow-up can see where the oldest housing sits before they drive there.
722,455Nebraska parcels with a recorded build year (state assessor records)
58%of them, 420,431 parcels, were built before the 1978 lead-paint ban
30%216,789 parcels predate 1950, when paint carried the most lead
153,946Nebraska children under 6 (Census ACS 2023)
Nebraska's housing runs older than the country's. Census puts 58.3% of Nebraska housing units before 1980 against 50.5% nationally, and 23.3% before 1950 against 16.4%. Applying the federal housing-survey lead-paint rates by build era to every Nebraska ZIP, our model expects roughly 303,000 housing units in the state to contain lead-based paint somewhere in the home. That is an estimate from housing age. Nobody has inspected those homes.
The map. Zoom in and it shows every house.
Counties are shaded by the share of their parcels built before 1950. Scroll or pinch to zoom, or tap a town below. Once you are in close, the map pulls the actual parcels for that spot live from the Nebraska statewide parcel service and colors each lot by its build year. Hover or tap a lot for the address and year.
county share built before 1950:under 12%12 to 20%20 to 30%30 to 40%40 to 50%50% and up
loading parcels…
County shading and counts come from the Nebraska statewide parcel layer (gis.ne.gov), pulled September 24, 2026, counting parcels that carry a building year. These are property records, so commercial and farm buildings are in the counts along with houses. The parcel view loads straight from the state's server, so it is as current as the county assessors' last update.
Where to start, by ZIP.
Two different lists, because the state has two different problems. The big-city ZIPs hold the most lead-paint housing by sheer count. The small towns on the right have a higher share of pre-1940 housing than anywhere in Omaha, in places with far fewer inspectors nearby. Scores run 0 to 100 on housing age and the share of families in poverty.
The Omaha ZIPs at the top of both lists (68104, 68105, 68107, 68108, 68111, 68131) are among the eleven ZIPs that overlap the 27-square-mile Omaha Lead Superfund Site, where EPA has sampled the soil at about 42,900 properties and cleaned roughly 13,600 yards since 1999. Census puts about 80% of the housing across those eleven ZIPs before 1980. The soil program does not touch the paint inside, which is why those ZIPs still lead the state's case counts.
Check any Nebraska ZIP
Type a ZIP and get its score, the share of housing from the lead-paint era, and the median build year. All 586 Nebraska ZIPs are in here.
All 93 counties.
Sorted by the number of pre-1978 parcels, which is roughly the number of buildings where lead paint is a live question. Douglas and Lancaster carry the volume. The highest shares are in the southern tier and the older river towns, where two thirds of everything on the tax rolls predates 1950.
| County | Parcels with a build year | Built before 1978 | % pre-1978 | % pre-1950 | Kids under 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas | 190,803 | 102,760 | 54% | 23% | 49,767 |
| Lancaster | 98,437 | 46,564 | 47% | 18% | 22,720 |
| Sarpy | 61,222 | 16,772 | 27% | 4% | 16,018 |
| Hall | 22,011 | 13,425 | 61% | 29% | 5,651 |
| Scotts Bluff | 14,833 | 11,191 | 75% | 41% | 2,783 |
| Dodge | 14,586 | 10,813 | 74% | 37% | 2,923 |
| Lincoln | 14,328 | 9,860 | 69% | 34% | 2,396 |
| Buffalo | 18,344 | 8,855 | 48% | 25% | 3,644 |
| Adams | 12,281 | 8,851 | 72% | 43% | 2,394 |
| Madison | 13,430 | 8,492 | 63% | 34% | 3,186 |
| Platte | 12,795 | 7,562 | 59% | 26% | 2,743 |
| Gage | 9,852 | 6,982 | 71% | 43% | 1,441 |
| Dawson | 9,086 | 6,751 | 74% | 43% | 2,226 |
| Saunders | 10,295 | 6,116 | 59% | 34% | 1,812 |
| Cass | 12,018 | 5,970 | 50% | 26% | 1,722 |
| Otoe | 7,115 | 4,790 | 67% | 44% | 1,049 |
| York | 5,935 | 4,260 | 72% | 42% | 1,035 |
| Seward | 6,934 | 4,169 | 60% | 34% | 1,122 |
| Custer | 5,393 | 4,084 | 76% | 55% | 861 |
| Washington | 8,132 | 4,060 | 50% | 27% | 1,389 |
| Saline | 5,414 | 4,032 | 74% | 49% | 1,126 |
| Dakota | 6,478 | 3,874 | 60% | 25% | 2,046 |
| Red Willow | 4,797 | 3,649 | 76% | 45% | 783 |
| Richardson | 4,197 | 3,542 | 84% | 64% | 561 |
| Holt | 5,102 | 3,490 | 68% | 39% | 705 |
| Cheyenne | 4,560 | 3,482 | 76% | 42% | 653 |
| Box Butte | 4,427 | 3,274 | 74% | 48% | 668 |
| Knox | 4,509 | 3,134 | 70% | 43% | 576 |
| Cuming | 4,139 | 3,107 | 75% | 48% | 901 |
| Phelps | 4,022 | 3,096 | 77% | 47% | 651 |
| Jefferson | 3,717 | 2,972 | 80% | 60% | 570 |
| Keith | 4,571 | 2,965 | 65% | 29% | 485 |
| Colfax | 3,885 | 2,910 | 75% | 49% | 1,040 |
| Dawes | 3,635 | 2,824 | 78% | 54% | 513 |
| Cedar | 3,658 | 2,589 | 71% | 47% | 620 |
| Butler | 3,723 | 2,573 | 69% | 49% | 557 |
| Hamilton | 4,214 | 2,569 | 61% | 36% | 724 |
| Merrick | 3,715 | 2,552 | 69% | 46% | 536 |
| Burt | 3,339 | 2,509 | 75% | 53% | 425 |
| Nemaha | 3,304 | 2,475 | 75% | 53% | 436 |
| Antelope | 3,392 | 2,466 | 73% | 49% | 506 |
| Clay | 3,118 | 2,424 | 78% | 57% | 459 |
| Sheridan | 2,790 | 2,305 | 83% | 56% | 341 |
| Wayne | 3,379 | 2,294 | 68% | 45% | 564 |
| Pierce | 3,338 | 2,281 | 68% | 45% | 572 |
| Fillmore | 2,898 | 2,180 | 75% | 50% | 403 |
| Thayer | 2,803 | 2,178 | 78% | 54% | 334 |
| Furnas | 2,582 | 2,143 | 83% | 64% | 331 |
| Kearney | 2,906 | 2,112 | 73% | 45% | 476 |
| Cherry | 3,015 | 1,997 | 66% | 37% | 432 |
| Dixon | 2,594 | 1,962 | 76% | 58% | 466 |
| Nuckolls | 2,342 | 1,938 | 83% | 61% | 220 |
| Morrill | 2,372 | 1,894 | 80% | 57% | 315 |
| Howard | 2,989 | 1,869 | 63% | 39% | 514 |
| Boone | 2,634 | 1,864 | 71% | 54% | 384 |
| Polk | 2,481 | 1,844 | 74% | 51% | 306 |
| Kimball | 2,039 | 1,693 | 83% | 43% | 246 |
| Johnson | 2,204 | 1,678 | 76% | 53% | 294 |
| Webster | 1,905 | 1,564 | 82% | 61% | 219 |
| Stanton | 2,531 | 1,560 | 62% | 36% | 428 |
| Valley | 2,030 | 1,560 | 77% | 53% | 298 |
| Harlan | 2,123 | 1,508 | 71% | 45% | 205 |
| Franklin | 1,710 | 1,450 | 85% | 67% | 214 |
| Chase | 1,990 | 1,446 | 73% | 45% | 260 |
| Brown | 1,910 | 1,442 | 75% | 47% | 231 |
| Nance | 1,692 | 1,310 | 77% | 56% | 214 |
| Hitchcock | 1,557 | 1,262 | 81% | 61% | 196 |
| Pawnee | 1,563 | 1,213 | 78% | 60% | 184 |
| Thurston | 1,601 | 1,206 | 75% | 52% | 740 |
| Sherman | 1,546 | 1,201 | 78% | 62% | 206 |
| Perkins | 1,459 | 1,103 | 76% | 44% | 218 |
| Frontier | 1,378 | 1,016 | 74% | 53% | 174 |
| Garden | 1,261 | 993 | 79% | 56% | 52 |
| Greeley | 1,312 | 970 | 74% | 55% | 176 |
| Deuel | 1,100 | 949 | 86% | 66% | 130 |
| Boyd | 1,193 | 911 | 76% | 51% | 84 |
| Dundy | 1,137 | 895 | 79% | 56% | 148 |
| Garfield | 1,125 | 748 | 66% | 44% | 124 |
| Rock | 889 | 688 | 77% | 37% | 86 |
| Gosper | 1,001 | 647 | 65% | 35% | 97 |
| Sioux | 693 | 537 | 77% | 59% | 103 |
| Hayes | 511 | 406 | 79% | 58% | 63 |
| Keya Paha | 512 | 372 | 73% | 54% | 56 |
| Hooker | 463 | 339 | 73% | 39% | 33 |
| Wheeler | 514 | 327 | 64% | 35% | 82 |
| Thomas | 447 | 313 | 70% | 40% | 31 |
| Logan | 376 | 245 | 65% | 41% | 65 |
| Loup | 481 | 228 | 47% | 32% | 27 |
| Banner | 303 | 219 | 72% | 43% | 48 |
| Blaine | 304 | 218 | 72% | 47% | 25 |
| Grant | 309 | 214 | 69% | 46% | 54 |
| Arthur | 221 | 161 | 73% | 47% | 41 |
| McPherson | 196 | 143 | 73% | 41% | 13 |
Parcel columns: Nebraska statewide parcel layer, September 2026. Children under 6: Census ACS 5-year 2023, table B09001. Address-level lists for any county or town on this table can be cut from the same records on request.
Nebraska's own numbers, next to the housing.
The state's blood-lead surveillance and the parcel records tell the same story from two directions. Here is what DHHS publishes, and where the housing data can fill in the gaps between tests.
34,669Nebraska children under 6 tested in 2023, about 23% of the age group
1,326of them at or above 3.5 µg/dL (3.8% of those tested), 689 of them confirmed cases
65%of 2023 cases were 1- and 2-year-olds, the ages when kids are on the floor with hands in mouths
77%of children under 6 were not tested in 2023, so most exposure in old housing is never measured
The state already targets by housing age. DHHS's high-risk ZIP list for blood lead testing flags a ZIP when its five-year rate of elevated results among 1- and 2-year-olds runs above the state average and more than 27% of its homes were built before 1950. The state's testing plan puts about 22% of Nebraska homes at elevated lead risk from age alone, the 11th highest share in the country, and DHHS's Lead Safe Nebraska site says more than 300,000 Nebraska homes still have lead-based paint. Our model, run ZIP by ZIP from the Census housing counts, lands at about the same number. The parcel map on this page takes that same signal from the ZIP down to the individual lot.
The rules the program works under. Nebraska's testing statute (Neb. Rev. Stat. 71-2518, from LB1038 in 2012) requires a blood lead test for children on Medicaid and recommends one for any child in a high-prevalence ZIP or flagged by the screening questionnaire. DHHS adopted the CDC reference value of 3.5 µg/dL in January 2022. Under the state case management guidelines, local health department follow-up starts at a confirmed 3.5, and an on-site environmental investigation with an educational home visit is the standard step at 10 to 19 µg/dL, with some districts doing them at lower levels. In 2026 DHHS and the district health departments also began offering LEAF (Lead Environmental Assessment for Families), a free home lead risk assessment with cleaning education, a cleaning kit and water filters for any pre-1978 home with a child under 6 or a pregnant resident.
That is where a field screen does its work. The investigator already has to find the source in the house. A kit that shows the lead on the window trough in front of the parent shortens the visit and makes the interim-control advice concrete. And because the parcel records already say which houses in a high-prevalence ZIP were built before 1950, the same kits can go out ahead of a test, through WIC, home visiting, LEAF, or the local health department, to the houses where the odds are highest. A 2021 UNMC study of Omaha homes found that houses built before 1950 had about six times the odds of elevated indoor lead dust.
Elevated blood lead cases in 2022, by local health department
Children under 6, confirmed or suspect at or above 3.5 µg/dL, calendar 2022, from the DHHS district map. The most recent sub-state breakdown DHHS has posted.
Douglas County556 cases
Lincoln-Lancaster County145 cases
Central District (Grand Island)53 cases
Public Health Solutions (Crete)46 cases
Three Rivers (Fremont)45 cases
South Heartland (Hastings)35 cases
Sarpy/Cass (Papillion)32 cases
Panhandle (Hemingford)31 cases
Elkhorn Logan Valley (Wisner)30 cases
Two Rivers (Kearney)30 cases
East Central (Columbus)26 cases
Four Corners (York)19 cases
Southeast District (Auburn)18 cases
Loup Basin (Burwell)17 cases
Northeast Nebraska (Wayne)16 cases
North Central District (O'Neill)13 cases
Dakota County (Dakota City)11 cases
Southwest Nebraska (McCook)11 cases
West Central District (North Platte)10 cases
Nebraska is already funded for this work.
Seven of the sixteen district health departments, plus Lincoln and Omaha, hold or recently held HUD lead hazard control money. Nebraska took three of the ten awards in HUD's October 2024 Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building round, and four more Nebraska districts won Lead Hazard Reduction grants in the 2025 round that start in 2026. Every one of these programs does home assessments, interim controls and clearance, which are the three places a field screen pays for itself.
City of Lincoln$4.4M Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration (2024, 96 units) plus $1.0M Healthy Homes Production (2025)
City of Omaha$4.4M Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration (2022, runs through Dec 2026, 160 units)
Northeast Nebraska PHD (Wayne)$2.9M Lead Hazard Reduction (2025 round, Apr 2026 to Apr 2030)
Panhandle PHD (Hemingford)$2.6M Lead Hazard Reduction (2025 round, Apr 2026 to Apr 2030) plus a $532K capacity grant
Three Rivers PHD (Fremont)$2.4M Capacity Building (2024) plus $1.8M Healthy Homes Production (2025, 120 units)
Central District HD (Grand Island)$1.8M Lead Hazard Reduction (2025 round, Mar 2026 to Mar 2030) plus $1.1M Capacity Building (2024)
Two Rivers PHD (Kearney)$1.3M Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control (2023, runs to Nov 2027)
West Central District HD (North Platte)$1.1M Capacity Building (2024, six counties)
Southwest Nebraska PHD (McCook)$1.0M Lead Hazard Reduction (2025 round, Mar 2026 to Mar 2030)
Surveillance figures: Nebraska DHHS EpiLink Bulletin, November 2024 ("Blood Lead Levels in Children Under Six Years Old, Nebraska, 2019 to 2023"), the DHHS 2022 Statewide Data Summary, and the DHHS map "Children with Elevated Blood Lead Levels, 2022 by Local Health Department". High-risk ZIP criteria, the 22% figure and its national rank: 2023 Nebraska Blood Lead Testing Plan (DHHS, November 2023). The 300,000 figure: leadsafe.ne.gov. Statute and reference value: Neb. Rev. Stat. 71-2518, DHHS Health Alert Network update of May 26, 2022, and the DHHS Blood Lead Public Health Case Management Guidelines (revised October 2023). LEAF: Two Rivers Public Health Department release, June 16, 2026, and Panhandle Public Health District board materials, May 2026. Omaha dust study: Z. Qin, UNMC dissertation, 2021. HUD awards: HUD FY2024 award summaries and project descriptions (October 2024 and January 2025), HUD release of September 28, 2022, HUD release of August 17, 2023, and USAspending.gov award records for the 2025 round (retrieved September 24, 2026).
What the kit does on a home visit.
Fluoro-Spec is a field screen for lead, a small bottle of reagent and a UV flashlight. Spray a painted surface, a windowsill, settled dust, a dish or a toy, shine the light, and lead glows bright green within seconds. White ceramic and clean surfaces stay dark. No certification is needed to use it, and one bottle runs a few hundred tests, so a visitor can check a whole house in the time it takes to walk through it.
An XRF or a lab dust wipe still does the confirming. The kit's job is to find the likely lead first, so the instrument time, the lab wipes and the follow-up visit go to the surfaces and the homes that need them.
1
On the elevated blood lead visit
The investigator sprays the suspect surfaces in front of the family. The parent sees the glow on the window trough or the porch rail, instead of reading about it in a report two weeks later. The lab wipes then go exactly where the glow was.
2
Left with the family for interim controls
The kit stays in the house. After cleaning or paint stabilization the family re-checks the same spots and can see whether the dust is gone. It gives them something to do between visits that is not just waiting.
3
With contractors before clearance
Crews doing hazard reduction spray the work area before the clearance wipes are pulled. Leftover dust shows up while there is still time to clean it, instead of as a failed clearance and a second mobilization.
Public health programs already running it in home visits and clinics include New Hampshire DHHS Healthy Homes, Columbus Public Health in Ohio, Weber-Morgan Health Department in Utah, and the HUD lead programs in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana. In Nebraska, North Central District Health Department in O'Neill has samples in hand.
What I can do for you, at no cost.
The kits are the small part. The research behind this page is what we do most of the time, and it is yours to use for the program.
- Address-level target lists. Every parcel built before 1950, or before 1978, for any county, town or ZIP in the state, as a spreadsheet, cut from the same records that drive the map.
- Cross-reference with the places you already reach. WIC clinics, prenatal providers, home-visiting caseloads, and the district health departments, matched against the oldest housing, so kits go out where the odds are highest.
- A kit-tracking portal. We built one for a Nebraska district health department: families log what glowed, the program sees it on the same parcel map, and follow-up gets routed. Demo at detectlead.com/kit-portal.
- A call with whoever is doing the visits. Thirty minutes on how to use the kit in an investigation, what the glow does and does not mean, and how to talk families through it.
Eric Ritter, Fluoro-Spec Inc.
Founder. Author of the housing-age lead-risk model behind this page.
Fluoro-Spec is a fast field screen that makes lead visible. It is not an EPA-recognized test kit and does not replace XRF or lab dust-wipe clearance where those are legally required. The active ingredient is manufactured by Fluoro-Spec Inc. under an EPA-authorized Low Volume Exemption under TSCA Section 5 (40 CFR 723.50). Details on the safety page. · detectlead.com
Sources. Parcel counts and build years: Nebraska statewide parcel service, gis.ne.gov, StatewideParcelsExternal layer, BuildingYear field, queried September 24, 2026. Housing age and child population: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2023, tables B25034 and B09001, state and county. ZIP scores: DetectLead housing-age risk model, ACS 5-year housing age and poverty by ZCTA with lead-paint prevalence by build era from HUD's National Survey of Lead and Allergens in Housing (87% of pre-1940, 69% of 1940 to 1959, 24% of 1960 to 1977 units). The model is described in Ritter, GeoHealth, 2026. Omaha Lead Superfund Site figures: EPA Third Five-Year Review (July 2024), EPA June 2024 fact sheet, and Douglas County Health Department; housing age across the site's eleven ZCTAs from ACS 5-year 2023, table B25034.
Are you with public health? Click here for our portal to explore the ways Fluoro-Spec can help prevent lead poisoning and reduce costs and headaches in your current programs.
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