Incorporating Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) data

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) estimates and publishes the Centers for Disease Control Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI or SVI) for every US census tract. SVI provides rankings of census tracts (both U.S. wide and within-state) based on 16 distinct social factors (each represented by a census variable), grouped into four themes. Each tract receives a ranking vis-à-vis other tracts for each variable and each theme and an overall ranking across all themes. A tract’s ranking therefore represents its relative social vulnerability compared to other census tracts.

NEW FEATURES

3Si replicated ATSDR’s published SVI methodology to estimate within-state SVI rankings of census tracts and zip code tabulation areas (or ZCTAs) based on Census data from the 2021 American Community Survey (ACS).
The resulting SVI rankings represent the relative social vulnerability of census tracts and ZCTAs within a state based on the most recent available Census data at two distinct geographic levels.
Our SVI estimation includes within-state rankings of census tracts and ZCTAs based on overall vulnerability and along the four separate themes that constitute SVI: (1) socioeconomic status, (2) household characteristics, (3) racial and ethnic minority status, and (4) housing type and transportation.
Starting July 1, 2023, the CUSP population base will annually estimate and ingest up-to-date SVIs into every state’s database based on the ACS estimates and geographic boundaries for that year. With this annual release schedule, CUSP’s SVI data (at the level of census tracts and ZCTAs) will be more up-to-date than the SVI data published by the CDC.

Benefits

CUSP provides up-to-date insight on regional and local socio-economic vulnerability that directly or indirectly impacts access to child care and child care funding for children and families.
Enrichment of the CUSP model with the most recent available SVI data allows users to perform correlation and other analysis on child care service and reach in the context of a widely accepted indicator of socio-economic vulnerability of different geographies across the state.
Updated SVI data allows policy makers to make decisions related to provider support and funding based on the most recent available data on local vulnerability.