Over the past year, more than 3 million adults were displaced from their homes due to natural disasters, according to new Census Bureau tallies.
The Census Bureau’s estimate far exceeds the number of people displaced in the United States, reflecting uncertainty about how disruptive disasters and climate change are causing. Census figures show that 3.4 million adults, or her 1.4% of the US adult population, will be displaced by 2022.
In contrast, the Internally Displaced Persons Monitoring Center, which tracks people internally displaced for any reason, estimates that between 2008 and 2021, disasters displaced an average of 800,000 U.S. residents annually. doing.
The Center’s figures include an estimated 1.7 million people displaced in 2017, when the three most devastating storms in U.S. history—Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
“these are [census] Hannah Perls, an attorney in the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, said: The census figures suggest that “international data and reports vastly underestimate the number of internally displaced persons,” Perls said.
According to the Census Bureau, most movements were short-lived, with nearly 40% of people reporting returning home within a week of being evacuated.
But census figures also show that about 16% of the displaced never returned home, and 12% had been away for six months or more. Many of those facing permanent displacement have disabilities, leading to post-disaster hardships such as isolation and food shortages (climate wireJanuary 6).
Census figures reflect long-term and permanent displacement at a higher rate than other studies have shown, according to Brookings Institution academic and disaster expert Carlos Martin. It says.
“Hurricanes tend to cause very widespread damage and tend to have longer travel times,” Martín said in an email. .
Martín said the total number of displaced persons “is not too surprising given the number of disasters in the past year”.
The Census Bureau warns that the numbers are “experimental,” but the Census estimates appear to be more comprehensive than those of the International Center.
The Census Bureau’s numbers are based on the 68,500 responses it received between January 4 and January 16, including whether respondents had been displaced from their homes in the past 12 months due to a disaster. Based on an online survey that asked dozens of questions. The survey was part of the Household Pulse Survey launched by the agency in 2020 to gauge how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the US population.
The International Center relies on information from government and private sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross. This scope limits the Center’s analysis to large-scale disasters involving his FEMA and the Red Cross, potentially excluding smaller events.
Census Bureau data shows that disasters will displace people in every state in 2022. This includes 29 states that have not had a major FEMA-involved disaster.
In Louisiana, 11% of the state’s adults (about 370,000) will be displaced by the 2022 disasters. That’s by far the highest percentage of any state, well ahead of her second-place Florida, where 5% of her adults were forced from home.
Although Louisiana did not experience a major disaster in 2022, most of the state has been hit by Hurricane Laura in 2020 and Hurricane Ida in 2021. Florida was devastated by Hurricane Ian in her 2022, one of the most devastating storms in US history.
The census figures also show that:
- The lowest income households (less than $25,000 annual income) had the highest displacement rates of any economic group, and wealthier households generally had lower displacement rates. Census data showed that 3.5% of him in the lowest-income households faced displacement, compared with 1.1% of him in households with incomes above $200,000.
- Gay, lesbian, and transgender people were much more likely to flee than straight and cisgender people.
- The evacuation rate of divorced/separated people is twice that of married people, 2.2% of divorced/separated people and 1% of married people.
- Black and Hispanic residents had slightly higher evacuation rates than white residents.
Harvard Law’s Perls said federal and state officials analyzed census data to find “the full extent and scale of evacuations” and greater difficulties with longer evacuations and evacuations. He said he hopes to understand people’s needs.
