Income Inequality Linked to Social Vulnerability to Disasters
The share of residents socially vulnerable to disasters is higher in counties where income inequality is the same as or greater than the national average, according to a U.S. Census Bureau analysis.
The analysis of the Census Bureau’s Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) Equity Supplement linked social vulnerability and income inequality.
Nationally, 20.6% of people were found to be highly vulnerable to disasters in 2022. But in counties where income inequality was at or above the national average, 23.4% were highly vulnerable. In counties with income inequality below the national average, 19.2% of residents were deemed highly vulnerable.
The CRE provides an easily understood metric for how socially vulnerable every neighborhood in the United States is to disasters, including wildfires, flooding, hurricanes and pandemics such as COVID-19.
