The FEMA National Risk Index is the most comprehensive natural disaster risk assessment dataset available for the United States, providing critical data on natural hazard risks, social vulnerability, and community resilience across all 50 states, territories, and tribal areas. This authoritative dataset evaluates expected annual losses from 18 major natural hazards including floods, wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, coastal flooding, winter storms, and volcanic activity at both county and Census tract levels.
Developed through extensive collaboration with federal agencies, academic institutions, and private sector partners, the National Risk Index combines historical loss data, hazard frequency analysis, and economic modeling to calculate Expected Annual Loss values for each community. The dataset integrates social vulnerability indicators that measure a community's susceptibility to adverse effects from natural hazards, including demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, household composition, and housing conditions. Community resilience metrics assess a community's ability to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from natural disasters.
Essential for emergency managers, urban planners, insurance professionals, and researchers, the dataset supports critical applications including disaster preparedness planning, risk-based resource allocation, hazard mitigation strategy development, climate adaptation planning, and insurance risk modeling. The comprehensive geographic coverage and standardized methodology enable comparative risk analysis across different regions and hazard types. Regular updates incorporate the latest hazard occurrence data, demographic changes, and infrastructure assessments to ensure accuracy for evidence-based decision making in disaster risk reduction and community resilience building efforts.