Census Bureau – 1 in 4 People Vulnerable to Extreme Heat

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About 1 in 4 people in the United States are socially vulnerable and have low resilience to extreme heat exposure, according to new US Census Bureau data released today. The so-called “Community Resilience Estimates” (CRE)* for Heat, an awakened experimental data model released in April, measures the capacity of individuals and households in a community to withstand the stress of exposure to extreme heat based on their social characteristics.

The experimental climate-focused data product was developed with Arizona State University’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER). The product was released at a joint Census Bureau-KER climate resilience symposium in Washington, DC. The first CRE was published as an experimental data product in June 2020 to provide information about the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also published to garner feedback from data users and stakeholders on the quality and usefulness of such a product.

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“This collaboration is an example of how we can leverage data and innovation to identify and address social inequalities and improve the resilience of communities in the face of climate change,” said Patricia Solís, KER’s executive director.

Be aware that CRE for Heat does not measure which areas are warmer than others or which areas are more likely to experience future heat waves. Instead, it identifies which areas exhibit low resilience if faced with extreme heat.

*The standard CRE measures social vulnerability that inhibits community resilience while the Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) for Heat adjusts risk factors such as quality of housing, transportation modes and financial hardship to gauge social vulnerability specifically to extreme heat exposure.”

The tool produces national, state, county and census tract (neighborhood equivalent) estimates using individual and household data from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) restricted microdata and the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program (PEP),” the Census Bureau said.

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