The U.S. Census Bureau has published the 2024 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE), identifying communities across the United States that are most socially vulnerable to natural disasters. The CRE highlights factors such as demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics that can increase the negative effects of disasters and reduce a community’s ability to recover.
For the first time, this release includes social vulnerability rankings for each county and census tract by specific types of natural hazards, including winter weather, flooding, hurricanes, strong winds, wildfires, and earthquakes. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are also now covered in these estimates.
The CRE provides data on populations at varying levels of social vulnerability for national, state, regional, county, and tract levels. An interactive map and tables show the top 25 most socially vulnerable counties and the top 100 tracts with at least a “relatively moderate” rating for expected economic losses from major natural hazards.
These resources are intended to support local planners, policymakers, public health officials, disaster management professionals, and other stakeholders in planning mitigation and recovery strategies.
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.”
The new estimates draw on 2024 American Community Survey microdata combined with population figures from several Census programs. Social vulnerability is calculated using ten ACS topics including poverty status, number of caregivers in a household, crowding conditions at home, communication barriers such as limited English proficiency or lack of access to information sources like broadband internet service or vehicles; unemployment; disability status; age groups; health insurance coverage; vehicle access; and broadband internet availability. Natural hazard ratings used in this analysis come from FEMA’s National Risk Index released in March 2023.
The full set of data is available through multiple channels on the Census Bureau’s website.
“Community resilience is 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 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,” according to the agency.
This update aims to help decision-makers understand where resources may be needed most before or after significant natural events.
