Documentation for the U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids

The U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids 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, and 2018. 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 km 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.