Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Baltimore, MD

Maryland · pop. 585,581 · FIPS 24510

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Heat Wave
dominant hazard
$136M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

near the national middle (42nd percentile)

national median $15M/yr Baltimore $136M

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 95.01/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 74.05/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (74th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 78.78/100
national median ~50 higher than 79% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Baltimore

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,062 flood-insurance claims totaling $26.7M in Baltimore since 1978. The costliest year was 2003 ($7.8M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $22,156 paid 1979: $2,527,042 paid 1980: $0 paid 1981: $232,579 paid 1982: $0 paid 1983: $52,595 paid 1984: $1,098,707 paid 1985: $109,621 paid 1986: $0 paid 1987: $26,304 paid 1989: $3,830 paid 1993: $1,020 paid 1994: $7,848 paid 1995: $0 paid 1996: $220,924 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $26,136 paid 1999: $1,542,842 paid 2000: $1,439 paid 2001: $0 paid 2002: $0 paid 2003: $7,756,901 paid 2004: $2,828,755 paid 2005: $74,079 paid 2006: $645,584 paid 2007: $9,036 paid 2008: $678,722 paid 2009: $13,723 paid 2010: $12,307 paid 2011: $237,727 paid 2012: $133,895 paid 2013: $124,475 paid 2014: $3,527,515 paid 2015: $118,259 paid 2016: $1,329,357 paid 2017: $23,039 paid 2018: $1,264,714 paid 2019: $565,854 paid 2020: $153,863 paid 2021: $84,324 paid 2022: $40,890 paid 2023: $1,101,756 paid 2024: $86,038 paid 2025: $56,208 paid 2026: $0 paid 2003 · $7.8M 1978 2026
$26.7M
total paid
$25,179
average claim
$2.1M
largest single claim
53%
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 Baltimore, MD and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Baltimore 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.