Connecticut Town-Level Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and Rural Health Tiers, 2022

This dataset provides a town-level aggregation of the 2022 CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) for all 169 towns in Connecticut, using a population-weighted method to merge census-tract scoring from the CDC. It was created to facilitate a more granular analysis of public health outcomes and social determinants of health, moving beyond traditional county-level metrics or simple rural/urban binaries, while being relevant to the level at which policy decisions are made in the American northeast. In addition to the SVI scores, the dataset includes the 3-Tier Rural Framework classification for Connecticut's rural towns, as developed by CT DataHaven (Davila and Seaberry, 2022). This framework sorts rural towns into three distinct archetypes based on demographic factors, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of rural communities. Various health outcomes and social determinants of health at the town level are also included courtesy of Datahaven. This dataset was compiled for the analysis in the white paper "Evaluating a Tiered System for Classifying Rural Connecticut Towns" and the resulting analysis was also presented at the 2025 Regional Medical Education Conference of the Student National Medical Association Region 7 at the Yale School of Medicine as a poster presentation.