placestats

Returns reporting capital gains and Social vulnerability to disasters

Across 3,121 counties, Returns reporting capital gains and Social vulnerability to disasters have a link of -0.51, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). But compare places with the same population density, income and education, and a very weak link of -0.18 remains. Most of the first figure came from both measures following how urban, rich and educated a place is, not from a link with each other.

Mostly gone after adjusting

Every place, plotted

One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.

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What each measure is

Returns reporting capital gains

The percentage of tax returns reporting a capital gain: profit from selling something like stock or property.

IRS Statistics of Income · IRS SOI N01000 / N1

Social vulnerability to disasters

How hard a disaster is likely to hit the people who live here. Counties are ranked from 0 (least) to 100 (most). The rank is built from ten facts about homes in the Census Bureau's survey: low income, disability, no health insurance, age 65 or older, no car, no internet, crowded homes, no one with a job, trouble with English, and one or no adult to care for others. So it mostly repeats other survey measures on this site. It is not new proof about them. It says nothing about which hazards a place faces.

FEMA National Risk Index (Census and University of South Carolina indexes) · FEMA National Risk Index v1.20, NRI_Table_Counties, SOVI_SCORE

Highest and lowest

Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.

Counties

By returns reporting capital gains

Returns reporting capital gainsSocial vulnerability to disasters
Highest
Harding County, SD46.6%10.6
McPherson County, NE45%10.6
Garfield County, MT44.4%21.9
Carter County, MT44.1%10.6
Marin County, CA43.9%24.7
Lowest
Loving County, TX0%23.6
King County, TX0%91.9
Kenedy County, TX0%69.1
Kusilvak Census Area, AK0.722%100
Starr County, TX2.19%97

By social vulnerability to disasters

Returns reporting capital gainsSocial vulnerability to disasters
Highest
Kusilvak Census Area, AK0.722%100
Bethel Census Area, AK3.38%100
Nome Census Area, AK6.46%99.9
Aleutians East Borough, AK6.67%99.9
Martin County, KY4.08%99.9
Lowest
Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region, CT14.4%10.6
Yuma County, CO20.7%10.6
Teller County, CO21.7%10.6
Summit County, CO29.5%10.6
San Miguel County, CO33%10.6
States — Social vulnerability to disasters is not published for states

By returns reporting capital gains

Returns reporting capital gainsSocial vulnerability to disasters
Highest
District of Columbia23.9%—
Washington23.4%—
Massachusetts22.8%—
New Jersey22.4%—
Connecticut22.3%—
Lowest
Mississippi10.1%—
West Virginia11.2%—
Alabama12.8%—
Louisiana13.1%—
New Mexico13.4%—
Metro areas — Social vulnerability to disasters is not published for metro areas

By returns reporting capital gains

Returns reporting capital gainsSocial vulnerability to disasters
Highest
Wildwood-The Villages, FL37.9%—
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA36.3%—
Jackson, WY-ID35.2%—
Boulder, CO34.6%—
Heber, UT33.1%—
Lowest
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX2.19%—
Eagle Pass, TX2.5%—
Gallup, NM3.21%—
Raymondville, TX3.64%—
El Centro, CA3.72%—

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 3,143 counties: the five with far more social vulnerability to disasters than their returns reporting capital gains would suggest, and the five with far less.

Returns reporting capital gainsSocial vulnerability to disasters
Above the line
Keya Paha County, NE41.5%88.4
Sumter County, FL37.9%90
New York County, NY34.8%96.3
Ziebach County, SD26%99.7
McIntosh County, ND32.8%85.3
Below the line
Long County, GA5.45%10.6
Liberty County, GA5.91%10.6
Loving County, TX0%23.6
Echols County, GA7.3%10.6
Calhoun County, AR6.74%12.8

Two series, one county

Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.

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Every version of the link

Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.

Before adjusting for anything-0.5073,121 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.184the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.167size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state+0.052each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight+0.164the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 287 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.382the link worked out inside each of 40 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.149uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link

How much to believe it

Could it be chance?

The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 4.6e-25. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 0.002. The site tested 29,403 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 1.8e-24.

Do nearby places look alike?

Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.29 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.

Did they change together?

Not measurable: at least one of these is published for too few of the years a change needs (2014–2019 or 2019–2023), or for too few counties in both.

Related pairs

Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore Returns reporting capital gains and Social vulnerability to disasters