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 using a range of demographic, socioeconomic, and health factors that can affect how communities respond to and recover from events such as hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, strong winds, and winter weather.
This year’s release introduces new 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 data include interactive maps and tables highlighting the top 25 most socially vulnerable counties and the top 100 tracts with at least a “relatively moderate” rating for expected economic losses from specific 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.”
The CRE uses microdata from the 2024 American Community Survey combined with current population estimates to assess factors such as poverty levels, presence of caregivers in households, housing crowding conditions, communication barriers, unemployment rates, disability status, insurance coverage rates, age distribution, vehicle access availability, and broadband internet access. Hazard ratings are derived from FEMA’s National Risk Index published in March 2023.
The Census Bureau states: “Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.” It adds: “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.”
Data sets are accessible through both downloadable formats on the CRE datasets webpage as well as on data.census.gov and via the Census API.
The new release aims to assist decision-makers in preparing for disasters by identifying communities where vulnerabilities could slow recovery efforts or worsen impacts.
