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Understanding NFIP Flood Claims Data: What the Numbers Mean

Updated October 2026

The figures on ZipFactbook come from FEMA’s public NFIP Redacted Claims dataset, a record of flood insurance claims since 1978. It is the best public window into where flooding has hit insured buildings — and it has quirks worth knowing before you compare places.

What one claim represents

Each record is one claim filed under the National Flood Insurance Program after a flood damaged an insured building or its contents. It records the year and date of loss, ZIP code, county, the flood zone used to rate the policy, the cause of damage, the amounts paid and, often, the name FEMA gave the flood event.

Five things the counts do not tell you

1. Uninsured damage. Only NFIP policyholders can file. Most homes have no flood insurance, and private flood policies are not included, so the true number of flooded buildings is higher.
2. Risk per home. A ZIP code with many insured buildings will tend to have many claims. Counts are not adjusted for how many buildings or policies an area has, so a big number can mean “many insured homes” as much as “floods often”.
3. Which house. FEMA removes addresses and coarsens locations. Nothing here identifies a property.
4. Today’s dollars. Payouts are in the dollars of the day, not adjusted for inflation, so a 1980s claim looks smaller than its real cost.
5. Today’s map. The zone on a claim is the zone used to rate that policy at the time. Maps are redrawn, so it may not match the current map.

Reading the numbers well

• Look at how many years had claims, not just the total. A place with claims in most years floods routinely; one with a single giant spike was hit by one storm.
• Separate named storms from the rest. Hurricanes dominate the totals in coastal counties. Claims outside named events usually come from local rain and drainage flooding — the kind that can recur.
• Compare neighbors, and compare a county with its own state. Every county page lists its neighbors and its rank within the state.
• Watch the zone split. A high share of claims from moderate- and low-risk zones is a sign that the map label alone understates the local risk.

Quirks in the source data

• Reused event names. FEMA reuses names across years — two different storms named Tropical Storm Allison (1989 and 2001), and a general “Flooding” label covering many separate floods from 1978 to 2002. We group events by name and year, and mark the general labels.
• Missing fields. Some claims lack a ZIP code, county or flood zone. They count in totals and show as “not reported”.
• Lag and revisions. FEMA updates the dataset roughly monthly and corrects older records. Our current snapshot runs to 2026-09-07, so the newest floods may be missing or incomplete.
• $0 claims. Some claims close without payment — for example when damage falls below the deductible or is not covered. We show both the count and the share of claims paid.

Where the numbers go next

For your own decisions, pair the area history with the current flood map, the building’s elevation, and an insurance quote. Our guide how to check if a house has flooded walks through each step.

More guides

• FEMA Flood Zones Explained: A, AE, V, X and What They Mean
• How to Check if a House Has Flooded Before You Buy or Rent

General information, not insurance, legal or real-estate advice. Rules and programs change — confirm details with FEMA, your insurer, or a licensed professional.