Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Santa Barbara, CA

California · pop. 447,998 · FIPS 06083

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Landslide
dominant hazard
$477M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Santa Barbara $477M

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 98.98/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 60.24/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (60th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 60.91/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (61st percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Santa Barbara

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,309 flood-insurance claims totaling $31.4M in Santa Barbara since 1978. The costliest year was 2018 ($16.6M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $37,227 paid 1979: $10,300 paid 1980: $97,031 paid 1981: $49,857 paid 1982: $590 paid 1983: $1,557,652 paid 1984: $0 paid 1985: $250 paid 1986: $0 paid 1988: $4,025 paid 1990: $500 paid 1991: $18,152 paid 1992: $7,443 paid 1993: $14,299 paid 1994: $0 paid 1995: $3,786,984 paid 1996: $6,693 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $1,245,126 paid 1999: $0 paid 2000: $60,357 paid 2001: $122,890 paid 2002: $1,523 paid 2003: $0 paid 2004: $28,967 paid 2005: $668,548 paid 2006: $0 paid 2008: $4,442 paid 2009: $14,754 paid 2010: $39,314 paid 2011: $17,261 paid 2014: $93,507 paid 2016: $100,309 paid 2017: $687,957 paid 2018: $16,598,363 paid 2019: $382,423 paid 2021: $53,139 paid 2022: $121,040 paid 2023: $3,984,221 paid 2024: $1,508,041 paid 2025: $33,270 paid 2026: $0 paid 2018 · $16.6M 1978 2026
$31.4M
total paid
$23,955
average claim
$945K
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 Santa Barbara, CA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Santa Barbara 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.