Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Worcester, MA

Massachusetts · pop. 861,566 · FIPS 25027

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Ice Storm
dominant hazard
$163M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

near the national middle (50th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Worcester $163M

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 93.54/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 22.04/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 85.88/100
national median ~50 higher than 86% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Worcester

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 765 flood-insurance claims totaling $12.6M in Worcester since 1978. The costliest year was 2005 ($4.1M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $152,406 paid 1979: $346,874 paid 1980: $146,996 paid 1981: $145 paid 1982: $356,761 paid 1983: $27,917 paid 1984: $51,043 paid 1985: $797,026 paid 1987: $81,187 paid 1988: $22,409 paid 1989: $2,473 paid 1991: $12,963 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $36,402 paid 1994: $2,446 paid 1995: $9,788 paid 1996: $53,549 paid 1998: $140,107 paid 1999: $5,172 paid 2000: $19,956 paid 2001: $241,133 paid 2002: $563 paid 2003: $50,381 paid 2004: $53,276 paid 2005: $4,147,411 paid 2006: $6,582 paid 2007: $311,900 paid 2008: $1,049,219 paid 2009: $58,294 paid 2010: $689,581 paid 2011: $285,730 paid 2012: $1,883 paid 2013: $5,713 paid 2014: $8,197 paid 2015: $0 paid 2016: $965,287 paid 2017: $1,146 paid 2018: $12,245 paid 2019: $0 paid 2020: $34,333 paid 2021: $422,812 paid 2022: $45,179 paid 2023: $1,914,795 paid 2024: $12,305 paid 2025: $0 paid 2026: $0 paid 2005 · $4.1M 1978 2026
$12.6M
total paid
$16,449
average claim
$776K
largest single claim
61%
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 Worcester, MA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Worcester 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.