Data report · OpenFEMA NFIP claims · Updated October 4, 2026

Where flood insurance actually pays out

Every National Flood Insurance Program claim with a loss from 2005 through 2026, by state, county, year, flood zone and storm, from FEMA’s own claim records. Sortable, downloadable and free to cite.

Louisiana has the most flood insurance claims: 303,142 NFIP claims with losses from 2005 through 2026, paid $19.3 billion, followed by Florida (258,204 claims, $16.5 billion) and Texas (226,065, $14.7 billion). Nationwide, the NFIP paid $74.8 billion on 1,440,229 claims, and 27% of claims with a known zone came from outside high-risk flood zones.

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By Sam Alishahi, independent insurance broker · Data fetched 2026-10-04

2005–2026

National Flood Insurance Program claims, nationwide

$74.8 billionpaid on 1,440,229 flood claims with losses from 2005–2026

27%of claims with a known flood zone were outside FEMA’s high-risk zones (B, C or X)

$17.8 billionpaid for 2005 losses, the costliest year in the period

67%of all payments went to Louisiana, Florida and Texas

By loss year

A few storms drive the totals

NFIP payments by the year the loss happened. The costliest year was 2005: $17.8 billion on 277,027 claims. Recent years can still grow as open claims close.

By state

The 15 states with the most flood claims paid

Building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments, losses 2005–2026.

What the data shows

Flood claims are not only a high-risk-zone problem. Of NFIP claims with a known rated flood zone, 27% were in moderate- or low-risk zones (B, C or X), outside the Special Flood Hazard Areas where lenders require flood insurance, and they received 23% of the payments (what flood zone X means). Among states with at least 1,000 claims, the share outside high-risk zones was highest in North Dakota (57%), South Dakota (56%), Colorado (55%), Texas (52%), Minnesota (49%).

Louisiana, Florida and Texas account for 67% of payments. Louisiana received $19.3 billion on 303,142 claims; next come New Jersey ($5.9 billion), New York ($5.4 billion), Mississippi ($2.9 billion), North Carolina ($1.6 billion).

The average claim varies widely by state, from building values and how deep the water gets. Nationally, payments averaged $51,962 per claim over the period, counting claims closed without payment.

Standard homeowners, renters and business property policies exclude flood. NFIP policies are bought separately, usually take effect after a 30-day wait, and private flood policies are an alternative (flood insurance; excess flood for high-value homes). Even inside high-risk zones, only about 40% of homes have an NFIP policy: flood insurance coverage by county.

The costliest named flood events

Event	Claims	Paid
Hurricane Katrina	208,348	$16.3 billion
Hurricane Harvey	92,398	$9.1 billion
Hurricane Sandy	144,848	$9.0 billion
Hurricane Helene	58,071	$6.7 billion
Hurricane Ian	48,776	$4.9 billion
Hurricane Ike	58,126	$2.7 billion
Mid-summer severe storms	30,019	$2.5 billion
Hurricane Ida	28,317	$1.4 billion
Hurricane Irene	52,493	$1.3 billion
Hurricane Milton	21,664	$1.2 billion
Hurricane Irma	33,340	$1.1 billion
Tropical Storm Imelda	10,940	$753 million

The 25 counties with the most paid

#	County	State	Claims	Paid
1	Harris County	Texas	98,084	$7.2 billion
2	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	80,208	$7.0 billion
3	Lee County	Florida	39,862	$3.9 billion
4	Pinellas County	Florida	31,837	$3.6 billion
5	Jefferson Parish	Louisiana	79,205	$3.0 billion
6	Ocean County	New Jersey	41,204	$2.5 billion
7	Galveston County	Texas	34,553	$2.2 billion
8	Nassau County	New York	40,508	$2.2 billion
9	St. Bernard Parish	Louisiana	17,613	$2.2 billion
10	St. Tammany Parish	Louisiana	27,072	$1.6 billion
11	Harrison County	Mississippi	10,487	$1.2 billion
12	East Baton Rouge Parish	Louisiana	15,060	$1.2 billion
13	Hillsborough County	Florida	12,860	$1.1 billion
14	Jefferson County	Texas	15,585	$1.1 billion
15	Collier County	Florida	13,558	$1.1 billion
16	Orange County	Texas	11,306	$1.0 billion
17	Suffolk County	New York	21,082	$997 million
18	Monmouth County	New Jersey	13,449	$869 million
19	Sarasota County	Florida	9,964	$821 million
20	Livingston Parish	Louisiana	10,276	$790 million
21	Hancock County	Mississippi	7,142	$730 million
22	Queens County	New York	11,199	$685 million
23	Jackson County	Mississippi	7,790	$684 million
24	Monroe County	Florida	18,303	$663 million
25	St. John the Baptist Parish	Louisiana	8,388	$652 million

Use this chart

Free to use with a link back. Paste this into your page or article:

<a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/flood-insurance-claims-by-state"><img src="https://alishahiinsurance.com/data/flood-insurance-claims-by-state.svg" alt="Flood insurance claims paid by state, 2005–2026" width="720" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><br><small>Source: <a href="https://alishahiinsurance.com/flood-insurance-claims-by-state">Alishahi Insurance analysis of FEMA NFIP data</a></small>

All states

Every state, sortable

Click a column to sort. “Outside high-risk zones” is the share of claims with a known rated zone that were in zones B, C or X (shown for states with at least 50 such claims).

Rank	State	Paid	Claims	Average paid	Outside high-risk zones	Paid, last 10 years
1	Louisiana	$19.3 billion	303,142	$63,562	26%	$4.3 billion
2	Florida	$16.5 billion	258,204	$63,960	13%	$15.4 billion
3	Texas	$14.7 billion	226,065	$64,988	52%	$11.2 billion
4	New Jersey	$5.9 billion	133,336	$44,345	10%	$500 million
5	New York	$5.4 billion	109,287	$49,182	31%	$332 million
6	Mississippi	$2.9 billion	32,879	$86,862	32%	$133 million
7	North Carolina	$1.6 billion	51,577	$31,031	22%	$1.3 billion
8	Pennsylvania	$901 million	30,418	$29,613	29%	$280 million
9	South Carolina	$616 million	22,863	$26,925	24%	$451 million
10	Alabama	$586 million	16,207	$36,137	23%	$181 million
11	Missouri	$564 million	15,892	$35,521	16%	$256 million
12	Connecticut	$457 million	16,121	$28,340	22%	$52 million
13	Tennessee	$420 million	10,913	$38,443	33%	$141 million
14	California	$390 million	13,748	$28,368	37%	$236 million
15	Illinois	$386 million	21,860	$17,653	25%	$85 million
16	Virginia	$374 million	22,512	$16,615	26%	$135 million
17	Georgia	$367 million	13,293	$27,599	35%	$191 million
18	Kentucky	$349 million	11,784	$29,652	21%	$212 million
19	Iowa	$294 million	8,093	$36,361	27%	$69 million
20	Washington	$266 million	8,325	$31,922	24%	$108 million
21	Indiana	$236 million	10,022	$23,526	22%	$53 million
22	Ohio	$224 million	11,077	$20,208	29%	$62 million
23	Massachusetts	$223 million	11,708	$19,040	24%	$82 million
24	Arkansas	$186 million	5,991	$31,028	30%	$101 million
25	Oklahoma	$162 million	4,518	$35,790	34%	$72 million
26	West Virginia	$142 million	6,030	$23,513	24%	$93 million
27	North Dakota	$128 million	4,234	$30,238	57%	$1 million
28	Rhode Island	$120 million	4,310	$27,851	29%	$18 million
29	Maryland	$114 million	7,479	$15,249	41%	$59 million
30	Vermont	$112 million	2,797	$40,024	21%	$55 million
31	Wisconsin	$110 million	4,906	$22,401	35%	$58 million
32	Michigan	$108 million	6,075	$17,839	31%	$76 million
33	Hawaii	$100 million	2,677	$37,521	26%	$57 million
34	Colorado	$83 million	3,631	$22,722	55%	$4 million
35	Nebraska	$79 million	2,923	$26,937	23%	$57 million
36	Kansas	$62 million	2,686	$23,252	35%	$28 million
37	Maine	$61 million	2,466	$24,873	33%	$45 million
38	New Hampshire	$58 million	2,509	$22,977	29%	$19 million
39	Oregon	$57 million	2,307	$24,734	31%	$11 million
40	Minnesota	$51 million	3,107	$16,480	49%	$17 million
41	South Dakota	$49 million	2,380	$20,499	56%	$23 million
42	Delaware	$43 million	3,001	$14,184	16%	$13 million
43	New Mexico	$39 million	1,284	$30,589	41%	$27 million
44	Arizona	$38 million	1,826	$20,856	45%	$17 million
45	Nevada	$21 million	766	$28,040	40%	$7 million
46	Montana	$14 million	921	$15,000	48%	$9 million
47	Alaska	$13 million	453	$29,282	37%	$7 million
48	Idaho	$6 million	602	$10,329	47%	$5 million
49	District of Columbia	$4 million	381	$11,753	88%	$2 million
50	Utah	$3 million	428	$7,605	83%	$2 million
51	Wyoming	$2 million	215	$10,968	48%	$935,467

Method and source

All figures come from FEMA’s OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims (v2), queried through the public API on 2026-10-04: 1,445,339 claims with a loss year from 2005 through 2026. “Paid” adds building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments. Flood zones are the rated zone on the claim: A and V zones are Special Flood Hazard Areas (high risk); B, C and X are moderate or low risk; claims with no reported zone or zone D are left out of the zone shares. Counts are claims, not policies or properties. Payments are in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation, and recent loss years can grow as claims close.

Free to use. Please cite “Alishahi Insurance analysis of FEMA NFIP claims data” and link to this page. Download every state and loss year: CSV. Questions about the data: sam@alishahiinsurance.com.

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