The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2024 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE), which identify areas in the United States that are most socially vulnerable to natural disasters. The CRE measures factors such as demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics that can increase a community’s vulnerability and affect its ability to recover from events like hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other hazards.
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.”
A new feature of this year’s release is social vulnerability rankings by natural hazard type for every county and census tract nationwide. For the first time, estimates also cover metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The CRE provides data on population levels by degree of social vulnerability across different geographic units.
The dataset includes an interactive map as well as tables listing the top 25 most socially vulnerable counties and the top 100 census tracts with at least a “relatively moderate” rating for expected economic losses from hazards such as winter weather events (including snow, sleet, freezing rain), flooding (both coastal and riverine), hurricanes, strong winds over 58 mph, wildfires, and earthquakes.
Estimates are available for download on the CRE datasets webpage. Data can also be accessed via data.census.gov or through the Census API webpage.
As described by the Census Bureau: “Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.” The CRE draws on several sources including 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) microdata modeled with 2024 population estimates from various census files to assess social vulnerability that may limit recovery after disasters.
Social vulnerability is determined using ten ACS topics: poverty status, number of caregivers per household, crowding at home level, communication barriers, unemployment status, disability presence, health insurance coverage status, age demographics, vehicle access availability, and broadband internet access. Hazard risk ratings are based on FEMA’s March 2023 National Risk Index release.
There is no separate news release associated with this product; only a tip sheet was provided.
