Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Salem, NJ

New Jersey · pop. 64,822 · FIPS 34033

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Coastal Flooding
dominant hazard
$40M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Salem $40M

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 Low 76.53/100
national median ~50 higher than 77% of counties
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 27.39/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (27th percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 89.54/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Salem

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 824 flood-insurance claims totaling $9.2M in Salem since 1978. The costliest year was 2012 ($4.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $4,040 paid 1979: $12,175 paid 1980: $187,877 paid 1981: $703 paid 1983: $0 paid 1984: $27,619 paid 1985: $54,318 paid 1988: $4,953 paid 1989: $382,457 paid 1991: $0 paid 1992: $25,423 paid 1993: $0 paid 1994: $15,510 paid 1996: $14,688 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $0 paid 1999: $306,377 paid 2000: $4,989 paid 2003: $90,103 paid 2004: $15,969 paid 2005: $14,699 paid 2006: $17,617 paid 2007: $46,169 paid 2008: $459,430 paid 2009: $30,073 paid 2010: $52,330 paid 2011: $895,076 paid 2012: $4,012,902 paid 2013: $440,643 paid 2014: $13,242 paid 2015: $1,401 paid 2016: $0 paid 2017: $24,383 paid 2018: $0 paid 2019: $0 paid 2020: $510,066 paid 2021: $1,408,952 paid 2023: $0 paid 2024: $103,118 paid 2012 · $4.0M 1978 2024
$9.2M
total paid
$11,138
average claim
$249K
largest single claim
79%
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 Salem, NJ and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Salem 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.