Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Virginia Beach, VA

Virginia · pop. 458,853 · FIPS 51810

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Heat Wave
dominant hazard
$31M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Virginia Beach $31M

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 57.86/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (58th percentile)
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 10.62/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 82.79/100
national median ~50 higher than 83% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Virginia Beach

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 6,254 flood-insurance claims totaling $103.7M in Virginia Beach since 1978. The costliest year was 2016 ($53.4M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $60,556 paid 1979: $9,522 paid 1980: $16,002 paid 1981: $1,657 paid 1982: $97,975 paid 1983: $26,107 paid 1984: $9,984 paid 1985: $49,405 paid 1986: $3,782 paid 1987: $70,969 paid 1988: $590,123 paid 1989: $614,624 paid 1990: $106,334 paid 1991: $284,306 paid 1992: $418,859 paid 1993: $208,651 paid 1994: $948,371 paid 1995: $324,200 paid 1996: $176,393 paid 1997: $214,076 paid 1998: $3,012,824 paid 1999: $1,272,973 paid 2000: $317,668 paid 2001: $9,290 paid 2002: $82,226 paid 2003: $7,060,548 paid 2004: $181,794 paid 2005: $34,535 paid 2006: $2,643,311 paid 2007: $27,434 paid 2008: $176,997 paid 2009: $18,460,807 paid 2010: $405,018 paid 2011: $5,174,471 paid 2012: $3,543,194 paid 2013: $23,652 paid 2014: $140,907 paid 2015: $297,070 paid 2016: $53,395,138 paid 2017: $210,359 paid 2018: $1,117,632 paid 2019: $484,288 paid 2020: $515,956 paid 2021: $64,433 paid 2022: $106,586 paid 2023: $224,843 paid 2024: $144,550 paid 2025: $377,260 paid 2026: $0 paid 2016 · $53.4M 1978 2026
$103.7M
total paid
$16,587
average claim
$818K
largest single claim
73%
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 Virginia Beach, VA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Virginia Beach 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.