New Data from Household Pulse Survey Suggest Disparities among Households Displaced by Disasters

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey offer insight into displacement among households due to disasters. As of December 2022, nearly 1.9 million households had been displaced in the past year due to a disaster, over a third of which were renter households. Renter households were slightly more likely to be displaced than homeowner households and were more likely to be displaced for longer periods of time. Black, non-Latino households and Latino households were more likely to be displaced, regardless of whether they were renters or homeowners, compared to white, non-Latino households. Households with incomes below $25,000 were also more likely to be displaced, regardless of their tenure, compared to households with incomes over $100,000.

The Census Bureau incorporated new questions about disasters into the December 2022 Household Pulse Survey. The survey asks all respondents if they were displaced from their homes in the past year due to a natural disaster. If respondents were displaced, they are also asked about the type of disaster they experienced, length of time of their displacement, amount of damage caused to their property and possessions, and their experience in the first month following the disaster regarding access to food, water, electricity, sanitary conditions, and other factors.

Based on the Pulse survey data, 1.6% of all households, or nearly 1.9 million households, were displaced in the past year due to a disaster. Renter households were slightly more likely to be displaced than homeowner households: approximately 1.7% of renter households were displaced, compared to 1.4% of homeowner households. Renter households were also more likely to be displaced for longer: only 56% of renter households returned home in less than a month compared to 71% of homeowner households. Nearly one in four renter households never returned home compared to one in 10 homeowner households.

Racial, ethnic, and income disparities were also evident. Black, non-Latino and Latino households were more likely to be displaced than white, non-Latino households. Latino and Black, non-Latino homeowner households were twice as likely to be displaced (2.4% and 2.4%, respectively) as white, non-Latino homeowner households (1.2%). Latino and Black, non-Latino renter households experienced similar disparities (1.5% and 2.4%, respectively, compared to 1.4% among white, non-Latino renter households). Households with incomes below $25,000 were more likely to be displaced than households with incomes over $100,000: both renter households and homeowner households with extremely low incomes were three times as likely to be displaced (3% and 2.6%, respectively) compared to renter households and homeowner households with incomes over $100,000 (1% and 0.8%).  Homeowner households with incomes over $100,000 were more likely to return to their home in less than a month compared to homeowner households in lower income brackets. Both renter and homeowner households with higher incomes tended not to have damage to their property or possessions, compared to renter households in lower income brackets.