Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Milwaukee, WI

Wisconsin · pop. 939,336 · FIPS 55079

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Cold Wave
dominant hazard
$342M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Milwaukee $342M

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 98.38/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 63.84/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (64th percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 98.6/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Milwaukee

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 2,431 flood-insurance claims totaling $28.2M in Milwaukee since 1978. The costliest year was 2025 ($11.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $36,975 paid 1979: $77,780 paid 1980: $12,043 paid 1981: $9,090 paid 1982: $11,093 paid 1983: $11,857 paid 1984: $0 paid 1985: $3,695 paid 1986: $180,752 paid 1987: $0 paid 1988: $4,711 paid 1989: $0 paid 1990: $1,480 paid 1991: $0 paid 1993: $395 paid 1995: $2,170 paid 1996: $7,599 paid 1997: $6,254,230 paid 1998: $5,664,002 paid 1999: $107,473 paid 2000: $85,896 paid 2001: $4,296 paid 2002: $7,289 paid 2004: $36,697 paid 2005: $1,428 paid 2006: $10,672 paid 2007: $1,883 paid 2008: $858,776 paid 2009: $49,527 paid 2010: $3,378,785 paid 2011: $12,075 paid 2013: $5,278 paid 2014: $11,488 paid 2015: $0 paid 2016: $0 paid 2017: $2,565 paid 2018: $10,485 paid 2019: $84,640 paid 2020: $154,768 paid 2021: $10,307 paid 2022: $4,146 paid 2023: $7,773 paid 2025: $10,967,642 paid 2026: $94,801 paid 2025 · $11.0M 1978 2026
$28.2M
total paid
$11,595
average claim
$986K
largest single claim
60%
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 Milwaukee, WI and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Milwaukee 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.