Table 1.
Mean summer daytime surface urban heat island intensity (SUHI) by climate zone and sociodemographic group.
| Climate zone(number of urbanized areas) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arid | Snow | Temperate | Equatorial | Total | |
| (19) | (44) | (110) | (2) | (175) | |
| (a) Population-weighted means: Total | 0.40 | 2.23 | 2.21 | 2.76 | 2.06 |
| (1.75) | (2.71) | (2.78) | (2.20) | (2.72) | |
| By race/ethnicitya: People of color | 0.65 | 3.44 | 2.93 | 3.19 | 2.77 |
| (1.61) | (2.57) | (2.74) | (2.15) | (2.70) | |
| Hispanic | 0.74 | 3.65 | 3.03 | 3.02 | 2.70 |
| (1.55) | (2.72) | (2.65) | (2.19) | (2.64) | |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 0.74 | 3.71 | 3.04 | 3.74 | 3.12 |
| (1.59) | (2.33) | (2.76) | (1.91) | (2.67) | |
| Non-Hispanic White | 0.11 | 1.67 | 1.54 | 1.93 | 1.47 |
| (1.86) | (2.58) | (2.65) | (2.06) | (2.60) | |
| Non-Hispanic Other | 0.22 | 2.68 | 2.60 | 2.34 | 2.41 |
| (1.78) | (2.60) | (2.84) | (2.13) | (2.80) | |
| By income: Below poverty | 0.74 | 3.32 | 2.92 | 3.42 | 2.77 |
| (1.61) | (2.67) | (2.78) | (2.02) | (2.73) | |
| 1–2 × poverty | 0.69 | 2.87 | 2.64 | 3.32 | 2.50 |
| (1.62) | (2.69) | (2.72) | (2.03) | (2.67) | |
| Above 2 × poverty | 0.22 | 1.87 | 1.95 | 2.41 | 1.80 |
| (1.79) | (2.63) | (2.76) | (2.21) | (2.69) | |
| (b) Difference in means: People of color − Non-Hispanic white | 0.54*** | 1.77*** | 1.39*** | 1.26*** | 1.30*** |
| (0.059) | (0.100) | (0.206) | (0.020) | (0.171) | |
| Below poverty − 2 × poverty | 0.52*** | 1.45*** | 0.96*** | 1.01*** | 0.97*** |
| (0.070) | (0.142) | (0.094) | (0.001) | (0.071) | |
| People of color − below poverty | −0.10** | 0.13* | 0.02 | −0.23 | −0.00 |
| (0.039) | (0.071) | (0.066) | (0.042) | (0.063) | |
| Non-Hispanic white − below poverty | −0.63*** | −1.65*** | −1.38*** | −1.50*** | −1.30*** |
| (0.070) | (0.094) | (0.167) | (0.022) | (0.127) | |
Source: Author calculations, based on data from US Census Bureau and ref. 24. Panel (a): Population-weighted means of urbanized area SUHI intensity in °C. Standard deviation is given in parentheses. Panel (b): Difference in group means. Standard errors clustered by urban area are given in parentheses.
*p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.
aHispanic is defined as all who report “Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin” as their ethnicity, regardless of race. People of color includes all Hispanic and all who do not identify as white alone. Black and white include all who identify as these races alone but not Hispanic. Other includes all other non-Hispanic races alone and more than one race.