Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Mathews, VA

Virginia · pop. 8,533 · FIPS 51115

Very Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Coastal Flooding
dominant hazard
$4M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Mathews $4M

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 indexVery Low 12.18/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery High 81.36/100
national median ~50 higher than 81% of counties
Community resilienceVery High 82.54/100
national median ~50 higher than 83% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Mathews

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,162 flood-insurance claims totaling $20.5M in Mathews since 1978. The costliest year was 2003 ($13.7M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $4,902 paid 1980: $0 paid 1982: $500 paid 1983: $0 paid 1985: $11,019 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $23,385 paid 1991: $0 paid 1992: $1,308 paid 1993: $0 paid 1996: $17,873 paid 1998: $225,887 paid 1999: $66,571 paid 2002: $0 paid 2003: $13,661,166 paid 2004: $90,000 paid 2005: $23,439 paid 2006: $3,038,843 paid 2007: $3,336 paid 2008: $22,682 paid 2009: $1,505,220 paid 2010: $0 paid 2011: $771,194 paid 2012: $342,744 paid 2013: $20,794 paid 2014: $0 paid 2015: $263,867 paid 2016: $32,706 paid 2018: $162,005 paid 2019: $115,879 paid 2020: $27,814 paid 2022: $11,647 paid 2025: $11,872 paid 2003 · $13.7M 1978 2025
$20.5M
total paid
$17,605
average claim
$320K
largest single claim
93%
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 Mathews, VA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Mathews 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.