According to a US Census Bureau study published Thursday, January 5, 3.3 million adults were displaced by natural disasters in the United States in 2022.
Hurricanes caused more than half of the forced displacements. By 2022, 3.3 million adults in the United States were displaced by natural disasters that hit the country, according to a United States Census Bureau study released Thursday.
In total, this figure presented by the online “Household Pulse Survey” represents 1.3% of the US adult population.
Florida is particularly affected
Florida has been particularly affected by population displacement in connection with natural disasters. According to the AP, nearly a million people, or one in 17 adult residents of the state, were forced to leave their homes by 2022, in part because of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole last fall. Of that population, more than 409,000 people have sought refuge in Louisiana, where last year was climatically calmer.
Conversely, the US states least affected by natural disasters last year were Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine and North Dakota.
One in six never returned home
According to the US Census Bureau survey, more than a third of the 3.3 million displaced people on American soil had to leave their homes for more than a week. On the other hand, one in six people never returned home.
The study also found that US citizens affected by forced displacement generally fared worse than the national average. They were 22% to declare having a family income of less than 25,000 dollars per year, that is, less than 23,500 euros, against 17.4% for the entire American population.
For this survey, the US Census Bureau collected 70,685 responses online in mid-December for more than a million inquiries sent to residents across the country.