Link to data
Prepared by: Kathryn Foster, Cornell University
Date: September 2026
Authors: U.S Census Bureau
About: The purpose of the Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) is to provide an accessible measure of neighborhood social vulnerability for understanding the impacts of disasters. The CRE is derived from 3 data sources: 2020 Decennial Census, the Population Estimates Program (PEP), and the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates. The CRE measure social vulnerability at tract, county, state, and national level.
Detailed Description: The CRE measures a community’s capacity to absorb, endure, and recover from disasters. Vulnerability is calculated from ten different risk factors, such as: poverty, caregiver status, unit-level crowding, communication barriers, employment, disability, health insurance, age, vehicle access, and internet access. The data then reports the number of individuals within a tract, county, and state who possess zero, one or two, or three or more components of social vulnerability. The data contains both aggregates and percentages of individuals with zero, one or two, or three or more components of social vulnerability. The CRE is developed from a small area estimate approach, combining direct ACS survey estimates with synthetic indirect estimates using a weighted average.
Alongside social vulnerabilities, the data provide general estimate for both risks and impacts of disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires. Furthermore, the CRE has been expanded create other supplement datasets on resilience for Puerto Rico, disaster response, heat, air conditioning, and equity.
These data may prove useful for researchers and practitioners who interested in understanding social vulnerability and resilience for older populations. The data can be combined with other datasets such as ACS age estimate or the Health and Retirement Study to further understand the intersection of vulnerability, climate hazards, and aging.
Citation:
For additional questions about the data please contact: sehsd.cre@census.gov