The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2024 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE), providing updated data on areas in the United States that are most socially vulnerable to natural disasters. The new release includes social vulnerability rankings for every county and census tract in the country, broken down by specific natural hazard types such as winter weather, flooding, hurricanes, strong winds, wildfires, and earthquakes.
For the first time, estimates for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are included. The CRE presents data on population levels of social vulnerability at national, state, regional, county, and tract levels. This information is designed to help local planners, policymakers, public health officials, disaster management professionals, and community stakeholders plan strategies for mitigation and recovery following disasters.
An interactive map and tables accompany the release. These highlight the top 25 most socially vulnerable counties and the top 100 census tracts with at least a “relatively moderate” rating for expected economic losses due to various natural hazards. The data can be downloaded from the CRE datasets webpage and is also available on data.census.gov as well as through the Census API webpage.
According to the Census Bureau: “Social vulnerability constitutes various adverse factors that can compound the negative impact of a disaster and that inhibit community resilience. These can be demographic, socioeconomic, or health characteristics of individuals and households in the community. The estimates and rankings are useful for local planners, policymakers, public health officials, disaster management professionals, and community stakeholders who plan mitigation and recovery strategies in the event of a disaster.”
Community resilience is defined as “the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.” The CRE uses 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year microdata modeled with current population estimates from several sources including the Population Estimates Program and other census files to measure social vulnerability that may affect a community’s ability to recover from disasters.
Social vulnerability is estimated using ten ACS topics: poverty status; number of caregivers in a household; unit-level crowding; communication barriers; unemployment; disability; health insurance coverage; age; vehicle access; and broadband internet access. Natural hazard risk ratings are based on FEMA’s National Risk Index released in March 2023.
There was no formal news release associated with this product.
