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SVI_2018.md

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Meta Data Name: SVI Variables
Last Modified: April 12, 2021
Author: Qinyun Lin

Data Location:

DS03 at the Census tract, ZCTA, and county levels. Files can be found here.

  • DS03_T
  • DS03_Z
  • DS03_C

Data Source(s) Description:

Tract-level variables were obtained from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Social Vulnerability Index 2018. Data was accessed on April 12, 2021. Raw data is downloaded in the folder of data_raw/SVI.

The CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index uses 15 U.S. census variables to help local officials identify communites that may need support before, during, or after disasters. Each tract is ranked on 15 social factors, including poverty, lack of vehicle access, and crowded housing, and are grouped into four related themes to identify vulnerable populations. For more on Index, how it can be used, and what it measures, please refer to the complete CDC SVI documentation, FAQ, and interactive map.

Description of Data Processing:

The following variables were included from the source data:

  1. Socioeconomic – RPL_THEME1;
  2. Household Composition & Disability – RPL_THEME2
  3. Minority Status & Language – RPL_THEME3
  4. Housing Type & Transportation – RPL_THEME4
  5. Overall summary ranking - RPL_THEMES

For county-level estimates, Census tracts were grouped by counties and their estimates were averaged.

For ZIP code-level estimates, because Census tracts do not map neatly onto ZCTA boundaries, we used a HUD USPS ZIP-Tract Crosswalk File to take the weighted mean of the percentage of addresses in each tract that falls into the ZIP code. The ZIP code estimates exclude NAs ( observations coded as -999). Please note that there are some gaps in the ZIP code level databaset, as we identified approximately 200 Census tracts that are included in SVI but NOT the HUD crosswalk; therefore, they were not translated to the ZIP code estimate.

Key Variable and Definitions:

Variable Variable ID in .csv Description
Socioeconomic – RPL_THEME1 SVIth1 SVI Ranking, Theme 1: Socioeconomic
Household Composition & Disability – RPL_THEME2 SVIth2 SVI Ranking, Theme 2: Household Composition & Disability
Minority Status & Language – RPL_THEME3 SVIth3 SVI Ranking, Theme 3: Minority Status & Language
Housing Type & Transportation – RPL_THEME4 SVIth4 SVI Ranking, Theme 4: Housing Type & Transportation
Overall summary ranking - RPL_THEMES SVIS Overall summary ranking

Data Limitations:

Please note that the SVI dataset at the ZIP code level is an estimate based on crosswalking the original CDC SVI Census tract measures to ZIP codes; some gaps in this data are to be expected. The ZIP code data does not include Puerto Rico or other US territories.

Comments/Notes:

See here for more information on SVI data and methodology.

Note on missing data: Missing and/or unavailable data are represented as blank cells or NA.