The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2024 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE), which identify regions in the United States that are most socially vulnerable to natural disasters.
According to the Census Bureau, social vulnerability includes factors such as demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics that can worsen the effects of disasters and hinder community recovery. These new estimates and rankings aim to support local planners, policymakers, public health officials, disaster management professionals, and community stakeholders as they develop strategies for disaster mitigation and recovery.
For this release, the CRE provides social vulnerability rankings for every county and census tract across the country by specific natural hazard types. For the first time, estimates are also available for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The data show population levels by degree of social vulnerability at multiple geographic scales: national, state, core-based statistical areas, county, and tract.
Interactive maps and tables highlight areas with higher vulnerability. Specifically noted are the top 25 counties and top 100 tracts rated at least “relatively moderate” for expected economic losses from winter weather events (including snow, sleet, freezing rain), flooding (coastal or riverine), hurricanes, strong winds exceeding 58 mph, wildfires, and earthquakes.
These resources are available for download on the CRE datasets webpage. Data can also be accessed via data.census.gov or through the Census API webpage.
The CRE uses data from the 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year microdata combined with population estimates from several sources—including the Population Estimates Program—to assess how communities may struggle to recover from disasters. Ten ACS topics inform these estimates: poverty status, presence of caregivers in households, housing crowding levels, communication barriers such as language difficulties or lack of access to information technology; unemployment; disability status; health insurance coverage; age distribution; vehicle access; and broadband internet availability. Natural hazard risk ratings derive from FEMA’s March 2023 National Risk Index release.
“Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.”
The latest data provide updated tools for understanding which communities may face greater challenges when disasters occur.
