US Counties With the Highest Expected Yearly Hurricane Loss

3,144 US counties ranked by expected yearly hurricane loss, from highest to lowest. First are Hyde County, NC (621), Carteret County, NC (537) and Pamlico County, NC (488). The middle one of the 3,144 has 0.167.

What this measures

The damage hurricanes are expected to do to buildings in an average year, in dollars for every $100,000 that the buildings are worth. FEMA works it out from how often hurricanes have struck since 1851 (1949 in the Pacific) and how much damage they did. Where FEMA says hurricanes cannot reach, it is 0. Source: FEMA National Risk Index.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 highest counties

Every state, highest first

Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.

More on expected yearly hurricane loss

• US Counties With the Lowest Expected Yearly Hurricane Loss
• Expected yearly hurricane loss by US county: map by year and what it goes with

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.