Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Middlesex, MA

Massachusetts · pop. 1,629,857 · FIPS 25017

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Ice Storm
dominant hazard
$322M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Middlesex $322M

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 96.95/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 15.81/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 89.79/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Middlesex

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 3,750 flood-insurance claims totaling $36.5M in Middlesex since 1978. The costliest year was 2010 ($10.3M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $1,723,946 paid 1979: $1,519,390 paid 1980: $23,267 paid 1981: $32,897 paid 1982: $548,651 paid 1983: $55,393 paid 1984: $76,695 paid 1985: $226,795 paid 1986: $3,261 paid 1987: $491,313 paid 1988: $96,782 paid 1989: $113,373 paid 1990: $141,122 paid 1991: $234,740 paid 1992: $16,506 paid 1993: $196,541 paid 1994: $541 paid 1995: $42,196 paid 1996: $2,992,694 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $1,474,781 paid 1999: $42,447 paid 2000: $13,361 paid 2001: $2,242,591 paid 2002: $14,309 paid 2003: $22,013 paid 2004: $358,009 paid 2005: $248,852 paid 2006: $7,719,960 paid 2007: $1,368,065 paid 2008: $186,254 paid 2009: $130,507 paid 2010: $10,340,017 paid 2011: $180,538 paid 2012: $157,370 paid 2013: $216,719 paid 2014: $333,144 paid 2015: $484,424 paid 2016: $16,350 paid 2017: $261,902 paid 2018: $158,290 paid 2019: $22,710 paid 2020: $20,907 paid 2021: $783,357 paid 2022: $45,380 paid 2023: $950,782 paid 2024: $151,976 paid 2025: $4,705 paid 2026: $0 paid 2010 · $10.3M 1978 2026
$36.5M
total paid
$9,730
average claim
$629K
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 Middlesex, MA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Middlesex 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.