Esri and United Nations Create COVID-19 Population Vulnerability Dashboard
New Tool Will Help Public Health Organizations Use Census
Data to Fight Pandemic
the global leader in location intelligence, today announced
it has collaborated with the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) to create the UNFPA COVID-19 Population
Vulnerability Dashboard. This new interactive tool will
provide public health workers, policy makers, and the
general public with access to useful information on
populations vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) in order to target preparedness and response
and to help save lives.
The dashboard highlights population vulnerabilities at the
national and subnational levels, using data from the latest
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) census
samples for 94 countries. It identifies populations at older
ages, including those living alone, and includes risk factors
for COVID-19 transmission such as residential density
(household size and persons per room) and access to piped
water and other amenities.
Daily updates on COVID-19 cases and deaths are embedded
in the dashboard, as is global data on health sector
readiness. This includes the density of available health care
workers, hospital beds, and intensive care units (ICUs).
“National and subnational disparities in vulnerability can be
striking,” said Linda Peters, Esri global business
development manager. “How these differences will affect
overall transmission and health risk will be shaped by
critical factors such as the scale and timing of government
lockdowns. But geographic comparisons help us anticipate
potential risks, and remind us of the huge differences in
underlying development needs and health sector readiness
between countries.”
Since the census data included is in the public domain—and
therefore from the 2010 census samples—the dashboard
also provides WorldPop projections of the 2020 population
numbers among older age groups, organized by sex and