Property Atlas

County hazard profile

New Hanover, NC

North Carolina · pop. 225,344 · FIPS 37129

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Hurricane
dominant hazard
$257M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

higher than 79% of counties

national median $15M/yr New Hanover $257M

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 96.12/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 18.96/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 90.2/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in New Hanover

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 11,182 flood-insurance claims totaling $187.7M in New Hanover since 1978. The costliest year was 1996 ($86.5M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $575 paid 1979: $13,194 paid 1980: $193,305 paid 1981: $48,187 paid 1982: $7,278 paid 1983: $10,922 paid 1984: $331,145 paid 1985: $16,557 paid 1986: $57,435 paid 1987: $447,130 paid 1988: $17,524 paid 1989: $44,384 paid 1990: $191,418 paid 1991: $117,392 paid 1992: $28,854 paid 1993: $93,072 paid 1994: $15,970 paid 1995: $128,425 paid 1996: $86,462,162 paid 1997: $46,718 paid 1998: $9,753,243 paid 1999: $31,109,445 paid 2000: $140,459 paid 2001: $8,435 paid 2002: $11,595 paid 2003: $41,568 paid 2004: $210,076 paid 2005: $1,594,544 paid 2006: $313,442 paid 2007: $0 paid 2008: $279,790 paid 2009: $119,807 paid 2010: $710,373 paid 2011: $521,854 paid 2012: $2,677 paid 2013: $15,165 paid 2014: $14,011 paid 2015: $2,043,149 paid 2016: $244,410 paid 2017: $4,612 paid 2018: $34,435,977 paid 2019: $505,995 paid 2020: $691,174 paid 2021: $938,072 paid 2022: $456,280 paid 2023: $785 paid 2024: $15,208,452 paid 2025: $29,899 paid 1996 · $86.5M 1978 2025
$187.7M
total paid
$16,784
average claim
$801K
largest single claim
82%
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 New Hanover, NC and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether New Hanover 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.