US Natural Disaster Risk by County

The 25 highest-risk US counties

What this page shows, and what it misses

FEMA's National Risk Index compares every US county for 18 natural hazards, combining modelled expected losses with social vulnerability and community resilience. It is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison — not a flood-zone map, not a forecast and not the risk to one home. Each county page adds the federal disaster declarations that named it and the tornadoes NOAA recorded on its ground since 1950.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.

Hurricane

1. Harris County, Texas — $458 million a year
2. Miami-Dade County, Florida — $331 million a year
3. Lee County, Florida — $300 million a year
4. Palm Beach County, Florida — $287 million a year
5. Broward County, Florida — $280 million a year
6. Jefferson Parish, Louisiana — $251 million a year
7. Brevard County, Florida — $281 million a year
8. Orleans Parish, Louisiana — $223 million a year
9. Collier County, Florida — $216 million a year
10. Charleston County, South Carolina — $281 million a year

Tornado

1. Harris County, Texas — $407 million a year
2. Cook County, Illinois — $345 million a year
3. Collin County, Texas — $420 million a year
4. Tarrant County, Texas — $144 million a year
5. Bexar County, Texas — $124 million a year
6. Denton County, Texas — $145 million a year
7. Dallas County, Texas — $115 million a year
8. Shelby County, Tennessee — $70 million a year
9. Oakland County, Michigan — $102 million a year
10. Travis County, Texas — $96 million a year

Inland flooding

1. Los Angeles County, California — $2.8 billion a year
2. Harris County, Texas — $1.1 billion a year
3. Riverside County, California — $1.1 billion a year
4. Maricopa County, Arizona — $1.1 billion a year
5. Cook County, Illinois — $1.1 billion a year
6. San Bernardino County, California — $960 million a year
7. Orange County, California — $820 million a year
8. Santa Clara County, California — $720 million a year
9. San Diego County, California — $648 million a year
10. Alameda County, California — $491 million a year

Coastal flooding

1. Bergen County, New Jersey — $34 million a year
2. Charleston County, South Carolina — $36 million a year
3. Miami-Dade County, Florida — $23 million a year
4. Cape May County, New Jersey — $31 million a year
5. Pinellas County, Florida — $25 million a year
6. Grays Harbor County, Washington — $24 million a year
7. Monroe County, Florida — $21 million a year
8. Suffolk County, New York — $25 million a year
9. Nassau County, New York — $24 million a year
10. Ocean County, New Jersey — $19 million a year

Wildfire

1. San Diego County, California — $430 million a year
2. Riverside County, California — $347 million a year
3. Los Angeles County, California — $155 million a year
4. San Bernardino County, California — $146 million a year
5. Elko County, Nevada — $62 million a year
6. Washington County, Utah — $68 million a year
7. Orange County, California — $58 million a year
8. Ventura County, California — $50 million a year
9. El Dorado County, California — $55 million a year
10. Kittitas County, Washington — $42 million a year

Earthquake

1. Los Angeles County, California — $4.6 billion a year
2. Alameda County, California — $1.4 billion a year
3. King County, Washington — $1.2 billion a year
4. Santa Clara County, California — $1.2 billion a year
5. Orange County, California — $1.0 billion a year
6. San Bernardino County, California — $922 million a year
7. Riverside County, California — $764 million a year
8. San Francisco County, California — $662 million a year
9. Contra Costa County, California — $519 million a year
10. San Mateo County, California — $497 million a year

Heat wave

1. Maricopa County, Arizona — $958 million a year
2. Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — $256 million a year
3. Clark County, Nevada — $295 million a year
4. Dallas County, Texas — $288 million a year
5. St. Louis County, Missouri — $253 million a year
6. Cook County, Illinois — $193 million a year
7. St. Louis City, Missouri — $172 million a year
8. Pima County, Arizona — $133 million a year
9. Harris County, Texas — $80 million a year
10. Kings County, New York — $63 million a year

Winter weather

1. Johnson County, Kansas — $6.0 million a year
2. Cook County, Illinois — $4.4 million a year
3. El Paso County, Colorado — $5.5 million a year
4. El Paso County, Texas — $2.3 million a year
5. Kings County, New York — $1.8 million a year
6. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — $3.5 million a year
7. Potter County, Texas — $2.1 million a year
8. Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — $1.9 million a year
9. Penobscot County, Maine — $2.8 million a year
10. Baltimore County, Maryland — $2.7 million a year