More Than a Quarter of People Who Live in Counties Along U.S. Southern Border Are Considered High-Risk

A significantly lower percentage of people living along the U.S.-Mexico border are living with zero risk factors than those in the nation as a whole, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s** **Community Resilience Estimates (CRE).

The CRE looks at various risk factors, from income to age and health insurance coverage, to measure how resilient and how at-risk communities are to the impacts of disasters.

In this story, we use the Department of Health and Human Services’ U.S. Mexico Border Health Commission (USMBHC)’s definition of border.

Established by a binational executive agreement in 2000, the USMBHC was created “to identify and evaluate current and future health problems affecting the population in the United States-Mexico Border Area, and to encourage and facilitate actions to address those problems.” (Examples of this work can be found in the 2020 Healthy Border report [PDF].)

A quarter of people living in border counties are considered high-risk and the rate is higher in Texas than in two other border states – California, Arizona.

The Census Bureau launched the CRE in summer 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a snapshot measurement of the risk and resilience of every neighborhood in the United States.

A quarter of people living in border counties are considered high-risk and the rate is higher in Texas than in two other border states – California, Arizona. (The rate between Texas and New Mexico was not statistically different.)

The national discussion of areas along the U.S.-Mexico border often treats these communities as monolithic. However, each area is unique with different strengths and weaknesses – variability in socio-economic profiles that can help shape health services and other policy decisions.

The CRE shows there is great variation both in the selected 44 border counties and within the four states that make up the U.S. side of the region.

Using microdata from the American Community Survey (ACS), the CRE measures the presence of high-risk individuals within a given community using a score based on 10 pre-selected risk factors:

• Household** **Income-to-Poverty Ratio (total family income divided by the poverty threshold) of less than 130%).
• Single or zero caregiver household with one or no individuals ages 18-64.
• Unit-level crowding (less than 0.75 persons per room).
• Communications barrier (limited English-speaking household or no one in the household over 16 with a high school diploma).
• No one in the household is employed full-time, year-round. (This is not applicable if all household residents are ages 65 years or older.)
• Disability posing constraints to daily activity. (People who report any one or more of the following six disability types: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care or independent living difficulties.)
• No health insurance coverage.
• Ages 65 or older.
• Households without a vehicle.
• Households without broadband internet access.

CRE groups individuals within risk categories by the number of associated risk factors: low-risk (0), medium-risk (1-2) and high-risk (3+).

The risk estimates enable us to look at characteristics for communities down to the tract level, including those along the southern border.

The CRE provides a unique new tool for measuring this dynamic region and identifying the health concerns of all border residents.

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