US Counties With the Lowest Expected Yearly Loss From Natural Hazards

3,144 US counties ranked by expected yearly loss from natural hazards, from lowest to highest. First are Kusilvak Census Area, AK (7.72), Wrangell City and Borough, AK (22.4) and North Slope Borough, AK (31.7). The middle one of the 3,144 has 149.

What this measures

The damage natural disasters are expected to do to buildings in an average year, in dollars for every $100,000 that the buildings are worth. FEMA works this out for 18 kinds of hazard, such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and earthquakes, from how often each has struck in the past and how much damage it did. It is an average: most years bring less, and a bad year can bring far more. A rate is used rather than a dollar total, which would mostly show how big the county is. 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 lowest counties

Every state, lowest first

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

More on expected yearly loss from natural hazards

• US Counties With the Highest Expected Yearly Loss From Natural Hazards
• Expected yearly loss from natural hazards 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.