What This Table Measures
The Census Bureau’s Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) for Heat summarize social vulnerability to extreme heat. Tables report the share of residents estimated to have zero, one to two, or three or more heat-related social vulnerability components, as defined below.
Social Vulnerability Components
CRE for Heat uses 11 possible components. Some are measured at the household level and apply to everyone in the household. Others are measured at the individual level.
| Financial hardship |
Household income-to-poverty ratio below 130%, or housing/rent costs above 50% of income. |
| Single or zero caregiver household |
Household has only one, or no, residents ages 18 to 64. |
| Housing quality or heat-vulnerable housing |
Crowding above 0.75 persons per room, or living in a mobile home, boat, RV, van, or similar unit. |
| Communication barrier |
Limited English-speaking household, or no one in the household has a high school diploma. |
| No full-time, year-round worker |
No one in the household works full-time year-round, except households where all residents are age 65 or older. |
| Disability |
A person reports hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, or independent living difficulty. |
| No health insurance |
A person lacks health insurance coverage. |
| Age 65 or older |
A person is age 65 or older. |
| Transportation heat exposure |
Household has no vehicle access, or a worker commutes by a mode with higher heat exposure, such as public transit, walking, biking, or another non-private-vehicle method. |
| No broadband internet access |
Household lacks broadband internet access. |
| Potentially lacks air conditioning |
Census-modeled estimate that a household likely lacks air conditioning. |
Heat-Exposed Population
Heat-exposed population is the estimated number of residents living in tracts that the Census Bureau flags as exposed to extreme heat in 2022.
A tract is flagged as heat-exposed if it met at least one of these criteria:
| Consecutive hot days |
Maximum air temperature reached or exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit for two or more consecutive days in 2022. |
| Wet-bulb heat threshold |
Estimated wet-bulb temperature reached or exceeded 80 degrees Fahrenheit at any point in 2022. |
This is a geographic exposure measure. It is separate from social vulnerability. A resident can live in a heat-exposed tract and have zero social vulnerability components, or have three or more social vulnerability components in a tract that was not flagged as heat-exposed.
For cities where 100% of residents are in heat-exposed tracts, the measure is omitted.
Social Vulnerability Components
CRE for Heat uses 11 possible components. Some are measured at the household level and apply to everyone in the household. Others are measured at the individual level.