Dataset supporting the study titled "Tropical Cyclone Vulnerability of Coastal Communities in Mtwara Municipal Council, Tanzania: A Composite Vulnerability Index Approach."

This dataset supports the study titled “Tropical Cyclone Vulnerability of Coastal Communities in Mtwara Municipal Council, Tanzania: A Composite Vulnerability Index Approach.” It contains household-survey data collected in December 2025 from 100 randomly selected households distributed across all 19 wards of Mtwara Municipal Council. The dataset was developed to assess community vulnerability to tropical cyclones using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change framework, which conceptualizes vulnerability through exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The dataset comprises 77 socioeconomic, livelihood, environmental, physical, and institutional indicators. These include dependence on marine resources, livelihood characteristics, food security, household demographics, income, education, asset ownership, access to services, disaster preparedness, communication, and selected geospatial factors. Indicator values were standardized using min–max normalization. Indicators were first averaged within thematic groups, after which the thematic-group scores were equally weighted to calculate the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive-capacity sub-indices. Adaptive capacity was treated as having an inverse relationship with vulnerability when calculating the Composite Vulnerability Index. The deposited files include: CVI_CALCULATION.xlsx: Household-level responses, normalized indicator values, sub-index calculations, CVI computation, and interpretation classes. CVI_QUESTIONS AND THEIR INDEX VALUES.docx: Definitions of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive-capacity indicators and their aggregated index values. README.docx: Explanation of the normalization, weighting, aggregation, and CVI calculation procedures. The dataset can support the replication and verification of the reported CVI calculations and may provide a methodological reference for researchers conducting multidimensional climate- and disaster-vulnerability assessments in coastal communities. Privacy protection: Precise household latitude and longitude coordinates were omitted from the Excel workbook to protect participants’ privacy and confidentiality.