ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the respondents and their insurance status. Income level may not have an independent relationship with insurance adoption, but should modify the direct relationship between vulnerability and insurance purchase. Empirical studies have suggested that a wide range of demographic variables are correlated with hazard mitigation in general or insurance purchase in particular. The relationships of the key independent variables-age of head of household, percentage of equity, family income, and percentage of total net worth comprised by the equity-with insurance purchase were further explored through the use of partial correlations. Percentage of equity was related to insurance purchase only in Contra Costa County where the relationship was positive: the higher the percentage of net equity, the greater the probability of insurance purchase. Discriminant functions including the structural and locational characteristics of the sample failed to distinguish the insured from the uninsured.
