Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Durham, NC

North Carolina · pop. 324,580 · FIPS 37063

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Heat Wave
dominant hazard
$91M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

lower than most counties (28th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Durham $91M

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 89.63/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 26.24/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (26th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 76.97/100
national median ~50 higher than 77% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Durham

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 443 flood-insurance claims totaling $10.7M in Durham since 1979. The costliest year was 2025 ($4.8M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1979: $2,362 paid 1980: $0 paid 1981: $2,330 paid 1982: $790 paid 1983: $7,282 paid 1984: $4,177 paid 1986: $15,336 paid 1989: $3,260 paid 1992: $294 paid 1993: $617 paid 1994: $0 paid 1995: $4,262 paid 1996: $703,312 paid 1997: $12,959 paid 1998: $82,831 paid 1999: $147,773 paid 2000: $63,918 paid 2001: $4,188 paid 2002: $169,291 paid 2003: $5,317 paid 2004: $41,026 paid 2005: $378,805 paid 2006: $74,413 paid 2007: $5,202 paid 2008: $196,450 paid 2009: $16,608 paid 2010: $0 paid 2011: $10,546 paid 2012: $14,835 paid 2013: $173,253 paid 2014: $207,160 paid 2015: $37,670 paid 2016: $967,173 paid 2017: $16,535 paid 2018: $1,350,905 paid 2019: $38,208 paid 2020: $59,697 paid 2022: $0 paid 2023: $97,108 paid 2024: $1,031,395 paid 2025: $4,799,476 paid 2026: $0 paid 2025 · $4.8M 1979 2026
$10.7M
total paid
$24,259
average claim
$500K
largest single claim
55%
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 Durham, NC and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Durham 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.