The Restaurant Resilience Index was developed to characterize the regional restaurant industry’s resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic across U.S. counties. Estimated from econometric results regarding daily restaurant demand, this index incorporates key moderating variables—specifically ethnicity, political ideology, dining habits (eat-in vs. off-premise), and restaurant diversity—that were found to influence the magnitude of demand decline caused by the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. By visualizing these data, potentially through tools like an ArcGIS dashboard, the index enables government entities and stakeholders to pinpoint geographically vulnerable areas and effectively allocate support resources, such as consumer voucher programs, to the hardest-hit local businesses.

Link to the Restaurant Resilience Index dashboard.