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National ranking · FEMA OpenFEMA

Most disaster-prone U.S. states

All 56 U.S. states and territories ranked by total FEMA disaster declarations. California leads the country, the most federally-declared disasters of any state.

California
Most disaster-prone
162
California declarations
1,132
Declarations nationwide
56
States & territories
Most Disasters Most Damage Deadliest Most Injuries Most Major

Top 12 states by FEMA disaster declarations

Wider bars = more federally-declared disasters on record

declarations

What this shows California records the most FEMA disaster declarations of any U.S. state, driven largely by fire events.

Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2

The full ranking

Every state and territory, with the major-disaster, emergency, and fire-management split.

# State TotalMajor
1 California CA 162 19
2 Washington WA 95 12
3 Oregon OR 76 6
4 Oklahoma OK 63 12
5 Arizona AZ 42 8
6 Montana MT 40 13
7 Texas TX 39 8
8 New Mexico NM 33 6
9 Florida FL 32 10
10 Nevada NV 31 1
11 Colorado CO 30 4
12 Alaska AK 29 19
13 Tennessee TN 26 17
14 Utah UT 25 2
15 Kansas KS 24 12
16 Louisiana LA 21 9
17 Idaho ID 21 5
18 Kentucky KY 20 14
19 Mississippi MS 17 12
20 North Carolina NC 17 6
21 New York NY 17 11
22 Nebraska NE 16 11
23 South Dakota SD 16 10
24 Wyoming WY 16 3
25 South Carolina SC 15 6
26 Georgia GA 14 7
27 Hawaii HI 14 5
28 Vermont VT 13 10
29 Missouri MO 12 12
30 North Dakota ND 12 10
31 West Virginia WV 11 10
32 Arkansas AR 9 7
33 Alabama AL 9 8
34 New Hampshire NH 9 8
35 Maine ME 9 8
36 Virginia VA 8 6
37 Minnesota MN 8 7
38 Iowa IA 7 7
39 Puerto Rico PR 7 5
40 Connecticut CT 7 3
41 Northern Mariana Islands MP 6 2
42 Guam GU 6 2
43 New Jersey NJ 6 4
44 Rhode Island RI 6 4
45 Massachusetts MA 5 3
46 Illinois IL 5 4
47 Michigan MI 4 4
48 U.S. Virgin Islands VI 4 1
49 Wisconsin WI 3 3
50 Delaware DE 3 3
51 Indiana IN 3 2
52 District of Columbia DC 2 0
53 Maryland MD 2 1
54 Pennsylvania PA 2 2
55 American Samoa AS 2 2
56 Ohio OH 1 1

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2

Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FEMA federal disaster data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.