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 CRE measures social vulnerability based on factors such as demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of individuals and households. These estimates are intended to help local planners, policymakers, public health officials, disaster management professionals, and community stakeholders develop strategies for disaster mitigation and recovery.
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.”
This year’s release introduces social vulnerability rankings for every county and census tract by type of natural hazard. For the first time, estimates are also available for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The CRE provides data on population levels by social vulnerability at national, state, core-based statistical area, county, and tract levels.
The release includes an interactive map and tables showing the top 25 most socially vulnerable counties and the top 100 tracts with at least a “relatively moderate” rating for expected economic losses from winter weather events (such as snow or freezing rain), flooding (including coastal or riverine flooding), hurricanes, strong winds over 58 mph, wildfires, and earthquakes.
Data from this release can be downloaded from the CRE datasets webpage. Additional access is available through data.census.gov and the Census API webpage.
The CRE uses 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) microdata combined with current population estimates to assess social vulnerability that may affect a community’s ability to recover after disasters. Ten ACS topics inform these estimates: poverty status, number of caregivers in a household, crowding at unit level, communication barriers, unemployment status, disability status, health insurance coverage status, age demographics, vehicle access availability, and broadband internet access. Hazard ratings derive from FEMA’s March 2023 National Risk Index.
“Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster,” according to the Census Bureau. “The CRE uses 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year microdata modeled with 2024 population estimates from the Population Estimates Program, 2020 Census Privacy-Protected Microdata File, and Modified Age and Race Census file to measure social vulnerability that may inhibit a community’s ability to recover from a disaster.”
“Social vulnerability is estimated from 10 ACS topics on poverty, number of caregivers in the household, unit-level crowding, communication barrier, unemployment, disability, health insurance coverage, age, vehicle access,and broadband internet access. Natural hazard ratings come from the March 2023 release of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index,” states the Census Bureau.
There is no news release associated with this product; it was issued as an informational tip sheet only.
