blockgroupvulnerability OPPORTUNITY The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publishes a set of percentiles that compare US geographies by vulnerability across household, socioeconomic, racial/ethnic and housing themes. These Social Vulnerability Indexes (SVI) were originally intended to to help public health officials and emergency response planners identify communities that will need support around an event. They are generally valuable for any public interest that wants to relate themselves to needy communities by geography. The SVI publication and its basis variables are provided at the Census tract level of geographic detail. The Census' American Community Survey is available down the to the block group level, however. Recasting the SVI methods at this lower level of geography allows it to be tied to thousands of other demographic variables available. Because the SVI relies on ACS variables only available at the tract level, a projection model needs to applied to approximate its results using blockgroup level ACS variables. The blockgroupvulnerability dataset casts a prediction for the CDCs logic for a new contribution to the Open Environments blockgroup series available on Harvard's dataverse platform. DATA The CDC's annual SVI publication starts with 23 simple derivations using 50 ACS Census variables. Next the SVI process ranks census geographies to calculate a rank for each, where Percentile Rank = (Rank-1) / (N-1). The SVI themes are then calculated at the tract level as a percentile rank of a sum of the percentile ranks of the first level ACS derived variables. Finally, the overall ranking is taken as the sum of the theme percentile rankings. The SVI data publication is keyed by geography (7 cols) where ultimately the Census Tract FIPS code is 2 State + 3 County + 4 Tract + 2 Tract Decimals eg, 56043000301 is 56 Wyoming, 043 Washakie County, Tract 3.01 republishes Census demographics called 'adjunct variables' including area, population, households and housing units from the ACS daytime population taken from LandScan 2020 estimates derives 23 SVI variables from 50 ACS 5 Year variables with each having an estimate (E_), estimate precentage (EP_), margin of error (M_), margin percentage (MP_) and flag variable (F_) for those greater than 90% or less than 10% provides the final 4 themes and a composite SVI percentile annually vars = ['ST', 'STATE', 'ST_ABBR', 'STCNTY', 'COUNTY', 'FIPS', 'LOCATION'] +\ ['SNGPNT','LIMENG','DISABL','AGE65','AGE17','NOVEH','MUNIT','MOBILE','GROUPQ','CROWD','UNINSUR','UNEMP','POV150','NOHSDP','HBURD','TWOMORE','OTHERRACE','NHPI','MINRTY','HISP','ASIAN','AIAN','AFAM','NOINT'] +\ ['TOTAL','THEME1','THEME2','THEME3','THEME4'] + \ ['AREA_SQMI', 'TOTPOP', 'DAYPOP', 'HU', 'HH'] knowns = vars + \ # Estimates, the result of calc against ACS vars [('E_'+v) for v in vars] + \ # Flag 0,1 whether this geog is in 90 percentile rank (its vulnerable) [('F_'+v) for v in vars] +\ # Margine of error for ACS calcs [('M_'+v) for v in vars] + \ # Margine of error for ACS calcs, as percentage [('MP_'+v) for v in vars] +\ # Estimates of ACS calcs, as percentage [('EP_'+v) for v in vars] + \ # Estimated percentile ranks [('EPL_'+v) for v in vars] + \ # Sum across var percentile ranks [('SPL_'+v) for v in vars]+ \ # Percentile rank of the sum of percentile ranks [('RPL_'+v) for v in vars] [c for c in svitract.columns if c not in knowns] The SVI themes range over [0,1] but the CDC uses -999 as an NA value; this is set for ~800 or 1% of tracts which have no total poulation. The themes are numbered: Socioeconomic Status – RPL_THEME1 Household Characteristics – RPL_THEME2 Racial & Ethnic Minority Status – RPL_THEME3 Housing Type & Transportation – RPL_THEME4 The themes with their variables and ACS sources are as follows: Unlike Census data, the CDC ranks Puerto Rico and Tribal tracts separately from the US otherwise. Theme SVI Variable ACS Table ACS Variables Socioeconomic E_UNINSUR S2701 S2701_C04_001E Socioeconomic E_UNEMP DP03 DP03_0005E Socioeconomic E_POV150 S1701 S1701_C01_040E Socioeconomic E_NOHSDP B06009 B06009_002E Socioeconomic E_HBURD S2503 S2503_C01_028E + S2503_C01_032E + S2503_C01_036E + S2503_C01_040E Household E_SNGPNT B11012 B11012_010E + B11012_015E Household E_LIMENG B16005 B16005_007E + B16005_008E + B16005_012E + B16005_013E + B16005_017E + B16005_018E + B16005_022E + B16005_023E + B16005_029E + B16005_030E + B16005_034E + B16005_035E + B16005_039E + B16005_040E + B16005_044E + B16005_045E Household E_DISABL DP02 DP02_0072E Household E_AGE65 S0101 S0101_C01_030E Household E_AGE17 B09001 B09001_001E Racial & Ethnic E_TWOMORE DP05 DP05_0083E Racial & Ethnic E_OTHERRACE DP05 DP05_0082E Racial & Ethnic E_NHPI DP05 DP05_0081E Racial & Ethnic E_MINRTY DP05 DP05_0071E + DP05_0078E + DP05_0079E + DP05_0080E + DP05_0081E + DP05_0082E + ... Visit https://dataone.org/datasets/sha256%3A3edd5defce2f25c7501953ca3e77c4f15a8c71251352373a328794f961755c1c for complete metadata about this dataset.

Application developed by the Esri Prototype Lab based on CDC's 2014 Social Vulnerability Index Data available through the Living Atlas. Users can quickly locate the top 10 most vulnerable counties or census tracts across all five SVI categories (Overall, Socioeconomic Status, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language and Housing & Transportation).

Overall Social Vulnerability at Census Block Group based on the following 4 themes: Socioeconomic, Household Composition, Minority Status and language, Housing Type and Transportation.

Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater social vulnerability.

Every community must prepare for and respond to hazardous events, whether a natural disaster like a tornado or a disease outbreak, or an anthropogenic event such as a harmful chemical spill. The degree to which a community exhibits certain social conditions, including high poverty, low percentage of vehicle access, or crowded households, among others, may affect that community’s ability to prevent human suffering and financial loss in the event of a disaster. These factors describe a community’s social vulnerability.

To learn more about the CDC SVI Methodology please visit: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html

DCR prepared a SVI Data at census block level (CDC analyzes to Census Tract only) from the following sources:

Credit to IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) for providing geographic features that correspond to summary data from the U.S. 2020 Decennial Census and American Community Survey, at the geographic summary level of Block Group. NHGIS derived this shapefile from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 TIGER/Line Shapefiles.

Credit to Micheal Bryan, 2022 for publishing CDC SVI data at census block scale for more information visit:

https://github.com/OpenEnvironments/blockgroupvulnerability

What is CDC Social Vulnerability Index?ATSDR’s Geospatial Research, Analysis & Services Program (GRASP) created the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map the communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event.SVI uses U.S Census Data to determine the social vulnerability of every county and tract. CDC SVI ranks each county and tract on 16 social factors, including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing, and groups them into four related themes:Theme 1 - Socioeconomic StatusTheme 2 - Household CharacteristicsTheme 3 - Racial & Ethnic Minority StatusTheme 4 - Housing Type & Transportation VariablesFor a detailed description of variable uses, please refer to the full SVI 2022 Documentation.RankingsWe ranked counties and tracts for the entire United States against one another. This feature layer can be used for mapping and analysis of relative vulnerability of counties in multiple states, or across the U.S. as a whole. Rankings are based on percentiles. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability. For each county and tract, we generated its percentile rank among all counties and tracts for 1) the sixteen individual variables, 2) the four themes, and 3) its overall position. Overall Rankings:We totaled the sums for each theme, ordered the counties, and then calculated overall percentile rankings. Please note: taking the sum of the sums for each theme is the same as summing individual variable rankings.The overall tract summary ranking variable is RPL_THEMES. Theme rankings:For each of the four themes, we summed the percentiles for the variables comprising each theme. We ordered the summed percentiles for each theme to determine theme-specific percentile rankings. The four summary theme ranking variables are: Socioeconomic Status - RPL_THEME1Household Characteristics - RPL_THEME2Racial & Ethnic Minority Status - RPL_THEME3Housing Type & Transportation - RPL_THEME4FlagsCounties and tracts in the top 10%, i.e., at the 90th percentile of values, are given a value of 1 to indicate high vulnerability. Counties and tracts below the 90th percentile are given a value of 0. For a theme, the flag value is the number of flags for variables comprising the theme. We calculated the overall flag value for each county as the total number of all variable flags. SVI Informational VideosIntroduction to CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)Methods for CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)More Questions?CDC SVI 2022 Full DocumentationSVI Home PageContact the SVI Coordinator

The U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids, Revision 01 data set contains gridded layers for the overall Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) using four sub-category themes (Socioeconomic, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language, and Housing Type & Transportation) based on census tract level inputs from 15 variables for the years 2000, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. SVI values range between 0 and 1 based on their percentile position among all census tracts in the U.S., with 0 representing lowest vulnerability census tracts and 1 representing highest vulnerability census tracts. SEDAC has gridded these vector inputs to create 1 kilometer spatial resolution raster surfaces allowing users to obtain vulnerability metrics for any user-defined area within the U.S. Utilizing inputs from CIESIN's Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4) Revision 11 data sets, a mask is applied for water, and optionally, for no population. The data are provided in two different projection formats, NAD83 as a U.S. specific standard, and WGS84 as a global standard. The goal of the SVI is to help identify vulnerable commUnities by ranking them on these inputs across the U.S.

ObjectiveWest Virginia’s (WV) suicide rate is 50% higher than the national average and is the highest in the Appalachian Region. Appalachia has several social factors that have contributed to greater socioeconomic deprivation, a known contributor of suicide. Given WV’s high prevalence of suicide and poverty, the current study aims to examine the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and suicide rates in WV.MethodsThe Townsend Deprivation Index (TDI), Social Deprivation Index (SDI), and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) measured socioeconomic deprivation. Negative binomial regression models assessed the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation scores, individual index items, and suicide rates. Model comparisons evaluated the indices’ ability to assess suicide rates. A backward selection strategy identified additional key items for examining suicide rates.ResultsThere was a significant increase in suicide rates for every 10% increase in TDI (β = 0.04; p < 0.01), SDI (β = 0.03; p = 0.04), and SVI scores (β = 0.05; p < 0.01). Household overcrowding and unemployment had a positive linear relationship with suicide in TDI (β = 0.04, p = 0.02; β = 0.07, p = 0.01), SDI (β = 0.10, p = 0.02; β = 0.01, p

What is CDC Social Vulnerability Index?ATSDR’s Geospatial Research, Analysis & Services Program (GRASP) created the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map the communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event.SVI uses U.S Census Data to determine the social vulnerability of every county and tract. CDC SVI ranks each county and tract on 16 social factors, including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing, and groups them into four related themes:Theme 1 - Socioeconomic StatusTheme 2 - Household CharacteristicsTheme 3 - Racial & Ethnic Minority StatusTheme 4 - Housing Type & Transportation VariablesFor a detailed description of variable uses, please refer to the full SVI 2020 Documentation.RankingsWe ranked counties and tracts for the entire United States against one another. This feature layer can be used for mapping and analysis of relative vulnerability of counties in multiple states, or across the U.S. as a whole. Rankings are based on percentiles. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability. For each county and tract, we generated its percentile rank among all counties and tracts for 1) the sixteen individual variables, 2) the four themes, and 3) its overall position. Overall Rankings:We totaled the sums for each theme, ordered the counties, and then calculated overall percentile rankings. Please note: taking the sum of the sums for each theme is the same as summing individual variable rankings.The overall tract summary ranking variable is RPL_THEMES. Theme rankings:For each of the four themes, we summed the percentiles for the variables comprising each theme. We ordered the summed percentiles for each theme to determine theme-specific percentile rankings. The four summary theme ranking variables are: Socioeconomic Status - RPL_THEME1Household Characteristics - RPL_THEME2Racial & Ethnic Minority Status - RPL_THEME3Housing Type & Transportation - RPL_THEME4FlagsCounties and tracts in the top 10%, i.e., at the 90th percentile of values, are given a value of 1 to indicate high vulnerability. Counties and tracts below the 90th percentile are given a value of 0. For a theme, the flag value is the number of flags for variables comprising the theme. We calculated the overall flag value for each county as the total number of all variable flags. SVI Informational VideosIntroduction to CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)Methods for CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)More Questions?CDC SVI 2020 Full DocumentationSVI Home PageContact the SVI Coordinator

What is CDC Social Vulnerability Index?ATSDR’s Geospatial Research, Analysis & Services Program (GRASP) created the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map the communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event.SVI uses U.S Census Data to determine the social vulnerability of every county and tract. CDC SVI ranks each county and tract on 16 social factors, including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing, and groups them into four related themes:Theme 1 - Socioeconomic StatusTheme 2 - Household CharacteristicsTheme 3 - Racial & Ethnic Minority StatusTheme 4 - Housing Type & Transportation VariablesFor a detailed description of variable uses, please refer to the full SVI 2020 Documentation.RankingsWe ranked counties and tracts for the entire United States against one another. This feature layer can be used for mapping and analysis of relative vulnerability of counties in multiple states, or across the U.S. as a whole. Rankings are based on percentiles. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability. For each county and tract, we generated its percentile rank among all counties and tracts for 1) the sixteen individual variables, 2) the four themes, and 3) its overall position. Overall Rankings:We totaled the sums for each theme, ordered the counties, and then calculated overall percentile rankings. Please note: taking the sum of the sums for each theme is the same as summing individual variable rankings.The overall tract summary ranking variable is RPL_THEMES. Theme rankings:For each of the four themes, we summed the percentiles for the variables comprising each theme. We ordered the summed percentiles for each theme to determine theme-specific percentile rankings. The four summary theme ranking variables are: Socioeconomic Status - RPL_THEME1Household Characteristics - RPL_THEME2Racial & Ethnic Minority Status - RPL_THEME3Housing Type & Transportation - RPL_THEME4FlagsCounties and tracts in the top 10%, i.e., at the 90th percentile of values, are given a value of 1 to indicate high vulnerability. Counties and tracts below the 90th percentile are given a value of 0. For a theme, the flag value is the number of flags for variables comprising the theme. We calculated the overall flag value for each county as the total number of all variable flags. SVI Informational VideosIntroduction to CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)Methods for CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)More Questions?CDC SVI 2020 Full DocumentationSVI Home PageContact the SVI Coordinator

Results from backward selection strategy: Social Vulnerability Index items.

Descriptive statistics of county suicide, index scores, and index items.

Individual index items: Negative binomial regression results.

According to the CDC website the "CDC's Social Vulnerability Index uses 15 U.S. census variables at tract level to help local officials identify communities that may need support in preparing for hazards; or recovering from disaster." These 15 variables are grouped into four themes: socioeconomic status, household composition & disability, minority status & language, and housing type & transportation, which is showing in the chart below. The overall social vulnerability score is based off the scoring within each theme. Possible scores range from 0 (lowest vulnerability) to 1 (highest vulnerability). On the map to the right the higher vulnerable areas are colored a dark blue. Click within the map to learn more about each census tract and their theme rankings.

What is CDC Social Vulnerability Index?ATSDR’s Geospatial Research, Analysis & Services Program (GRASP) created the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map the communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event.SVI uses U.S Census Data to determine the social vulnerability of every county and tract. CDC SVI ranks each county and tract on 16 social factors, including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing, and groups them into four related themes:Theme 1 - Socioeconomic StatusTheme 2 - Household CharacteristicsTheme 3 - Racial & Ethnic Minority StatusTheme 4 - Housing Type & Transportation VariablesFor a detailed description of variable uses, please refer to the full SVI 2020 Documentation.RankingsWe ranked counties and tracts for the entire United States against one another. This feature layer can be used for mapping and analysis of relative vulnerability of counties in multiple states, or across the U.S. as a whole. Rankings are based on percentiles. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability. For each county and tract, we generated its percentile rank among all counties and tracts for 1) the sixteen individual variables, 2) the four themes, and 3) its overall position. Overall Rankings:We totaled the sums for each theme, ordered the counties, and then calculated overall percentile rankings. Please note: taking the sum of the sums for each theme is the same as summing individual variable rankings.The overall tract summary ranking variable is RPL_THEMES. Theme rankings:For each of the four themes, we summed the percentiles for the variables comprising each theme. We ordered the summed percentiles for each theme to determine theme-specific percentile rankings. The four summary theme ranking variables are: Socioeconomic Status - RPL_THEME1Household Characteristics - RPL_THEME2Racial & Ethnic Minority Status - RPL_THEME3Housing Type & Transportation - RPL_THEME4FlagsCounties and tracts in the top 10%, i.e., at the 90th percentile of values, are given a value of 1 to indicate high vulnerability. Counties and tracts below the 90th percentile are given a value of 0. For a theme, the flag value is the number of flags for variables comprising the theme. We calculated the overall flag value for each county as the total number of all variable flags. SVI Informational VideosIntroduction to CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)Methods for CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)More Questions?CDC SVI 2020 Full DocumentationSVI Home PageContact the SVI Coordinator

Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) indicates the relative vulnerability of every U.S. Census tract. Overall vulnerability combines four themes including 1) Socioeconomic Status, 2) Household Composition and Disability, 3) Minority Status and Language, and 4) Housing Type and Transportation. These four themes are in turn based on groupings from 15 factors such as unemployment, minority status, disability, etc. Thus, each tract receives an overall ranking as well as a ranking for each of the four themes. In addition, a relative measure is included (expressed as a percentile), which indicates the vulnerability ranking by tract and parcel. Values range from 0 to 1, with 1 being the most vulnerable. aa Additional information on the SVI layer can be found here: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/documentation/SVI_documentation_2018.html

Feature Layer: ACHD Social Vulnerability Index Description: Adams County Health Department gathered these data from the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Source: CDC Social Vulnerability Index 2020Type: Polygon LayerAttributes: Social Vulnerability Index ranges from 0 to 1, with more vulnerable census tracts having a value closer to 1. The SVI is comprised of 4 themes: Socioeconomic status, Household characteristics, Racial and Ethnic Minority Status, and Housing Type/Transportation. School location are also available.Process: ACHD downloaded the SVI 2020 data from CDC/ATSDR.Description provided by Adams County Health Department.