Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Contra Costa, CA

California · pop. 1,165,466 · FIPS 06013

Very High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Earthquake
dominant hazard
$971M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

Expected annual loss · all 3,232 U.S. counties

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Contra Costa $971M

A real dollar distribution: most counties sit far below a handful of high-exposure ones. A FEMA model of annual loss, not a record of disasters.

FEMA national percentile scores

FEMA/CDC score each county 0–100 against all others — the score is the national rank (RATING). Higher risk and vulnerability are worse; higher resilience is better.

FEMA risk indexVery High 99.49/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 21.47/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceRelatively High 67.81/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (68th percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Contra Costa

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,202 flood-insurance claims totaling $12.8M in Contra Costa since 1978. The costliest year was 2022 ($2.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $2,268 paid 1979: $1,500 paid 1980: $44,882 paid 1981: $11,679 paid 1982: $478,681 paid 1983: $337,535 paid 1984: $0 paid 1985: $0 paid 1986: $360,429 paid 1987: $0 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $6,119 paid 1990: $0 paid 1991: $775 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $164,644 paid 1994: $0 paid 1995: $345,967 paid 1996: $121,141 paid 1997: $409,084 paid 1998: $808,523 paid 1999: $0 paid 2000: $2,076 paid 2001: $25,306 paid 2002: $1,216,884 paid 2003: $2,498 paid 2004: $57,200 paid 2005: $1,846,944 paid 2006: $276,482 paid 2008: $194,753 paid 2009: $218,005 paid 2010: $58,591 paid 2011: $0 paid 2012: $265,030 paid 2013: $0 paid 2014: $7,529 paid 2015: $0 paid 2016: $12,319 paid 2017: $1,523,881 paid 2018: $12,835 paid 2019: $698,819 paid 2021: $561,838 paid 2022: $1,968,447 paid 2023: $757,341 paid 2024: $25,376 paid 2025: $3,508 paid 2026: $17,647 paid 2022 · $2.0M 1978 2026
$12.8M
total paid
$10,688
average claim
$338K
largest single claim
52%
in high-risk flood zones (A/V)

RECORDED — these are actual paid NFIP claims (a redacted census from OpenFEMA), not a model. They are the realized counterpart to the FEMA risk score above: one is what happened and got paid, the other is what a model predicts.

Scope: these are flood-insurance claims, so they undercount flooding where owners were uninsured — read this as "what NFIP paid here," not "every flood." County-level totals, not a per-property or per-address verdict. Verify a specific address and buy coverage at FloodSmart.gov; the underlying data is OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

What these figures mean

  • RATING — the FEMA risk score, expected loss, social vulnerability, and resilience are FEMA/CDC models, not records of disasters that happened. The 0–100 scores are already national percentiles.
  • MEASURED — population is a recorded census figure.
  • COMPUTED — the county's rank within the dollar-loss distribution is our placement over the 3,232 counties.
  • CONTEXT — the note below is framing, not a measurement.

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What this is — and is not

This is FEMA/CDC modeled hazard exposure for Contra Costa, CA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Contra Costa is a good or bad place to live — hazard exposure is not place quality, and a county can't opt out of its geography. It is not a per-property or per-address risk assessment, not a prediction of any specific disaster, and not insurance advice. For site-specific risk use a per-property assessment; for the underlying model see FEMA National Risk Index.