More than 1.3% of the adult population in the US was displaced by natural disasters in the past year, with hurricanes responsible for more than half of the forced relocations, according to first-of-its-kind survey results from the US Census Bureau.
The Household Pulse Survey results said that 3.3 million US adults were displaced by either hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes or other disasters. The two-year-old online survey asked for the first time about displacement from natural disasters in results released on Thursday.
Some states were affected more than others. In Florida, nearly 1 million people, or about one in 17 adult residents, were displaced in a state that was ravaged by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in the fall. More than 409,000 people – or almost one in eight residents – were displaced in Louisiana, which had a comparatively calm hurricane season in 2022 even though residents still were dealing with the devastating impacts from Hurricane Ida the previous year.
Among the states with lowest rates of the adult population being displaced by disasters were Indiana, Maine, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Of the 3.3 million displaced adults, more than a third were out of their homes for less than a week. About one in six residents never returned to their homes, according to the survey.
The demographic makeup of the displaced did not deviate much from the overall race and ethnic background of the US population, but they tended to be poorer. About 22% of the displaced adults reported having a household income of less than $25,000 a year, compared to 17.4% for the overall US population.
The Census Bureau sent invitations to more than 1m households to participate in the experimental survey and collected a total of 70,685 responses in mid-December.