Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Norfolk, MA

Massachusetts · pop. 725,648 · FIPS 25021

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Riverine Flooding
dominant hazard
$147M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

near the national middle (45th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Norfolk $147M

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 Moderate 92.02/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 12.75/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 92.97/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Norfolk

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 3,261 flood-insurance claims totaling $25.9M in Norfolk since 1978. The costliest year was 2018 ($7.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $1,863,008 paid 1979: $344,237 paid 1980: $6,956 paid 1981: $113,640 paid 1982: $250,461 paid 1983: $35,784 paid 1984: $76,695 paid 1985: $3,279 paid 1986: $8,949 paid 1987: $427,743 paid 1988: $145,181 paid 1989: $367 paid 1990: $44,490 paid 1991: $2,806,825 paid 1992: $923,140 paid 1993: $26,139 paid 1994: $50,091 paid 1995: $15,201 paid 1996: $796,815 paid 1997: $13,643 paid 1998: $689,198 paid 1999: $57,235 paid 2000: $14,779 paid 2001: $237,530 paid 2002: $10,260 paid 2003: $2,535 paid 2004: $33,396 paid 2005: $1,242,995 paid 2006: $346,823 paid 2007: $35,468 paid 2008: $97,962 paid 2009: $30,112 paid 2010: $5,895,069 paid 2011: $15,333 paid 2012: $409,072 paid 2013: $525,547 paid 2014: $183,555 paid 2015: $111,944 paid 2016: $248 paid 2017: $16,691 paid 2018: $7,025,023 paid 2019: $18,362 paid 2020: $246,267 paid 2021: $47,557 paid 2022: $14,659 paid 2023: $376,928 paid 2024: $147,399 paid 2025: $130,648 paid 2018 · $7.0M 1978 2025
$25.9M
total paid
$7,947
average claim
$286K
largest single claim
69%
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 Norfolk, MA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Norfolk 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.