Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Berks, PA

Pennsylvania · pop. 428,624 · FIPS 42011

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$120M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

lower than most counties (37th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Berks $120M

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 92.72/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Moderate 48.51/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (49th percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 85.56/100
national median ~50 higher than 86% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Berks

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,313 flood-insurance claims totaling $23.7M in Berks since 1978. The costliest year was 2006 ($8.9M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $131,985 paid 1979: $440,085 paid 1980: $1,235 paid 1982: $27,450 paid 1983: $57,353 paid 1984: $310,933 paid 1985: $86,131 paid 1986: $11,867 paid 1987: $451,568 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $34,451 paid 1990: $0 paid 1991: $894 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $34,371 paid 1994: $52,888 paid 1995: $1,546 paid 1996: $414,781 paid 1998: $0 paid 1999: $296,917 paid 2000: $35,161 paid 2001: $119,909 paid 2002: $8,678 paid 2003: $184,851 paid 2004: $214,698 paid 2005: $697,572 paid 2006: $8,853,242 paid 2007: $45,637 paid 2008: $1,779 paid 2009: $5,370 paid 2010: $17,814 paid 2011: $1,699,347 paid 2012: $19,356 paid 2013: $17,600 paid 2014: $94,138 paid 2015: $11,100 paid 2017: $2,023 paid 2018: $423,870 paid 2019: $920,032 paid 2020: $2,134,140 paid 2021: $595,454 paid 2022: $742 paid 2023: $4,072,814 paid 2024: $0 paid 2025: $1,116,141 paid 2026: $6,823 paid 2006 · $8.9M 1978 2026
$23.7M
total paid
$18,014
average claim
$1.0M
largest single claim
57%
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 Berks, PA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Berks 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.