Property Atlas

County hazard profile

San Luis Obispo, CA

California · pop. 280,370 · FIPS 06079

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Drought
dominant hazard
$214M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

near the national middle (66th percentile)

national median $15M/yr San Luis Obispo $214M

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 indexRelatively High 95.9/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 32.76/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (33rd percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 93.92/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in San Luis Obispo

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 613 flood-insurance claims totaling $8.6M in San Luis Obispo since 1978. The costliest year was 2023 ($3.9M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $36,765 paid 1980: $42,919 paid 1981: $406 paid 1982: $106,996 paid 1983: $44,590 paid 1986: $21,864 paid 1991: $2,952 paid 1992: $33,617 paid 1993: $92,092 paid 1994: $0 paid 1995: $1,618,497 paid 1996: $0 paid 1997: $170,344 paid 1998: $523,020 paid 1999: $3,991 paid 2000: $4,725 paid 2001: $738,775 paid 2004: $126,666 paid 2005: $4,421 paid 2006: $443,658 paid 2007: $31,570 paid 2009: $5,534 paid 2010: $221,711 paid 2011: $77,746 paid 2012: $9,339 paid 2014: $0 paid 2015: $10,498 paid 2016: $12,324 paid 2017: $247,181 paid 2018: $7,166 paid 2019: $35,258 paid 2021: $13,429 paid 2023: $3,928,008 paid 2024: $0 paid 2026: $0 paid 2023 · $3.9M 1978 2026
$8.6M
total paid
$14,056
average claim
$250K
largest single claim
49%
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 San Luis Obispo, CA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether San Luis Obispo 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.