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Topic · General Health Professions

Homelessness and Social Issues

Homelessness and Social Issues is a research topic within General Health Professions. Science Explorer counts 46k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the impact of homelessness on health, with a focus on mental illness, substance abuse, and the effectiveness of interventions such as Housing First. It also examines the challenges faced by homeless individuals in accessing healthcare and the prevalence of HIV risk behaviors among this population.

  • Homelessness
  • Health
  • Mental Illness
  • Substance Abuse
  • Housing First
  • Public Health
  • Social Support
  • Youth Homelessness
  • Health Care Utilization
  • HIV Risk Behaviors
Research works
46k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+8%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
51% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Homelessness and Social Issues

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Homelessness and Social Issues research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (3.8k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 3.8k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 1.1k works
  3. 3 Canada 744 works
  4. 4 Australia 577 works
  5. 5 Brazil 328 works
  6. 6 India 206 works
  7. 7 Germany 186 works
  8. 8 South Africa 185 works
  9. 9 China 184 works
  10. 10 Nigeria 146 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 50.7%United Kingdom: 15.3%Canada: 9.9%Australia: 7.7%6 others listed: 16.4%51%largest
United States3,809 · 50.7%United Kingdom1,147 · 15.3%Canada744 · 9.9%Australia577 · 7.7%6 others listed1,235 · 16.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Homelessness and Social Issues research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Toronto publishes the most Homelessness and Social Issues research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of TorontoCanada 93 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 61 works
  3. 3 Harvard UniversityUnited States 57 works
  4. 4 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 53 works
  5. 5 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 47 works
  6. 6 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 47 works
  7. 7 University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 46 works
  8. 8 United States Department of Veterans AffairsUnited States 46 works
  9. 9 University of British ColumbiaCanada 46 works
  10. 10 City University of New YorkUnited States 46 works

Who are the leading researchers in Homelessness and Social Issues?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Homelessness and Social Issues include George Davey Smith, Ali H. Mokdad and Walter Churchill Willett.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Ali H. Mokdad United States 429k citations
  3. 3 Walter Churchill Willett United States 411k citations
  4. 4 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  5. 5 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
  6. 6 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  7. 7 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  8. 8 Ted R. Miller United States 279k citations
  9. 9 Yousef Saleh Khader Jordan 274k citations
  10. 10 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Homelessness and Social Issues?

The most cited paper in Homelessness and Social Issues is "Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO Collaborative Project on Early Detection of Persons with Harmful Alcohol Consumption‐II" (JOHN B. DEC. M. SAUNDERS, Olaf Gjerløw Aasland, Thomas F. Babor et al., 1993), with 13,467 citations. Next come "Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy" (12,017) and "Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards *" (5,729).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO Collaborative Project on Early Detection of Persons with Harmful Alcohol Consumption‐II JOHN B. DEC. M. SAUNDERS, Olaf Gjerløw Aasland, Thomas F. Babor et al. · Addiction Jun 1993 13,467
2 Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy Robert J. Sampson, Stephen W. Raudenbush, Felton J. Earls · Science Open access 15 Aug 1997 12,017
3 Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards * Susan L. Cutter, Bryan J. Boruff, W. Lynn Shirley · Social Science Quarterly 19 May 2003 5,729
4 Timeline Follow-Back Linda Carter Sobell, Mark B. Sobell · Humana Press eBooks Book chapter 1992 4,024
5 Assessing “Neighborhood Effects”: Social Processes and New Directions in Research Robert J. Sampson, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Thomas Gannon-Rowley · Annual Review of Sociology Review 28 Jul 2002 3,994
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Homelessness and Social Issues research done?

The largest centres of Homelessness and Social Issues research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Toronto (Canada) and Melbourne (Australia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Portsmouth.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 246 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 181 works
  3. 3 TorontoCanada 161 works
  4. 4 MelbourneAustralia 145 works
  5. 5 Los AngelesUnited States 123 works
  6. 6 Washington D.C.United States 121 works
  7. 7 BostonUnited States 117 works
  8. 8 ChicagoUnited States 98 works
  9. 9 SydneyAustralia 95 works
  10. 10 BaltimoreUnited States 89 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. PortsmouthGB · 33.3 works20×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Homelessness and Social Issues than the world average.

See Homelessness and Social Issues on the map

Where is the best place to study Homelessness and Social Issues?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Toronto, Harvard University and University of California, San Francisco score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 18.31%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityUniversity of Califo…University of TorontoUniversity College L…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of TorontoCanada 72.515.6%5.6×93 -3.4%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 71.220.5%2.2×57 +7.7%
3University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 69.516.8%8.0×47 +11.6%
4University College LondonUnited Kingdom 65.814.6%3.6×47 +15.8%
5Cornell UniversityUnited States 65.123.4%1.9×21 +44.2%
6New York UniversityUnited States 63.314.8%4.7×44 +13.6%
7University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 62.919.8%4.0×28 +26.5%
8Newcastle UniversityUnited Kingdom 62.922.3%5.0×20 +97.1%
9University of SheffieldUnited Kingdom 62.718.5%6.8×29 +8.7%
10McMaster UniversityCanada 60.916.8%5.1×24 +20.6%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Homelessness and Social Issues, country by country

Is Homelessness and Social Issues research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 8% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Homelessness and Social Issues.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Homelessness and Social Issues as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.045% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Homelessness and Social Issues0.037% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Homelessness and Social Issues over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Homelessness and Social Issues9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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