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DisasterStatus

US disaster statistics

US property damage statistics

A cited reference for the scale of US property damage — water, fire, mold and federally declared disasters. Every figure below links to a government or peer-reviewed primary source, and you're free to republish it with a link back (CC BY 4.0).

Data deep dives

Disaster declarations — the full dataset → Every federal declaration since 1953: per-year and seasonal charts, a state-by-state map and table, CSV downloads and embeddable charts. Refreshed daily from FEMA. Water damage & flood claims — the full dataset → Every NFIP flood-insurance claim since 1978: claims and average payout per year, a state-by-state table, CSV downloads and embeddable charts, plus US homeowners water-claim rates. Refreshed monthly from FEMA.

Water damage

Water damage & freezing

Water damage restoration →

Water and freezing is the second most common homeowners-insurance peril, behind only wind and hail — and it hits a household almost every day of the year somewhere in the country. Burst pipes, failed appliances and storm intrusion drive most claims.

Water damage

1 in 67

insured homes files a water or freezing claim each year — about 1.5% of insured homes annually.

Source: Insurance Information Institute / ISO-Verisk · 2019–2023

$15,400 average water damage or freezing claim Source: Insurance Information Institute / ISO-Verisk · 2019–2023
~23% of all homeowners claims are water damage or freezing the 2nd most common peril, after wind & hail Source: Insurance Information Institute / ISO-Verisk · 2019–2023
5.6% of insured homes file a claim of any kind each year average claim $17,059 across all perils Source: Insurance Information Institute / ISO-Verisk · 2019–2023
2M+ federal flood-insurance claims recorded since 1978 about 2.7 million as of 2026 Source: FEMA OpenFEMA — FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims · since 1978
2.7M+ federal flood-insurance claims since 1978 — charted by year and state. Explore water damage & flood-claim data →

Fire damage

Residential fire

Fire damage restoration →

Home fires are becoming less frequent but more costly: incident counts have fallen over the past decade while inflation-adjusted losses have climbed. Cooking is the single leading cause of residential fires.

Fire damage

344,600

residential building fires — 2,890 deaths · 10,400 injuries.

Source: U.S. Fire Administration · 2023

$11.27B in residential fire property loss Source: U.S. Fire Administration · 2023
+25% rise in inflation-adjusted fire loss over the decade even as fire incidents fell 6% (2014–2023) Source: U.S. Fire Administration · 2014–2023
Cooking the leading cause of home fires by incident count Source: U.S. Fire Administration · 2023
351,000 home structure fires Source: NFPA Source: NFPA · 2024

Mold & dampness

Mold & indoor dampness

Mold remediation →

Dampness and mold are widespread in US housing, and the health burden is measurable — a meaningful share of the national asthma load is attributable to damp, mold-prone indoor conditions.

Mold & dampness

~47%

of US homes have dampness or mold.

Source: Mudarri & Fisk 2007, Indoor Air (LBNL / EPA) · 2007

30–50% of US buildings have damp conditions that favor mold growth Source: US EPA
~21% of US asthma cases attributable to dampness or mold exposure Source: World Health Organization

Storms & federal disasters

Storms & federal disasters

Storm damage →

Federally declared major disasters have run at roughly one every six days over the past decade. Counts swing sharply year to year, and weather perils — flood, severe storm and tropical systems — drive the bulk of them.

Storms & federal disasters

650

federal major-disaster declarations in the past decade — about one every six days (2016–2025).

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA — Disaster Declarations Summaries · 2016–2025

100 major-disaster declarations in 2024 versus 45 in 2025 Source: FEMA OpenFEMA — Disaster Declarations Summaries · 2024–2025
1953 the first year FEMA tracked federal disaster declarations the dataset runs to today Source: FEMA OpenFEMA — Disaster Declarations Summaries · since 1953

Major disasters per year

Last 25 years · 650 in 2016–2025
050100150200 2000: 45 major disasters 2001: 45 major disasters 2002: 49 major disasters 2003: 56 major disasters 2004: 68 major disasters 2005: 48 major disasters 2006: 52 major disasters 2007: 63 major disasters 2008: 75 major disasters 2009: 59 major disasters 2010: 81 major disasters 2011: 99 major disasters 2012: 47 major disasters 2013: 62 major disasters 2014: 45 major disasters 2015: 43 major disasters 2016: 46 major disasters 2017: 59 major disasters 2018: 59 major disasters 2019: 61 major disasters 2020: 104 major disasters 2021: 58 major disasters 2022: 47 major disasters 2023: 71 major disasters 2024: 100 major disasters 2025: 45 major disasters 2026: 30 major disasters 200020052010201520202025
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA, updated daily Explore declarations by year, month & state →

Methodology, citing & reuse

Every figure on this page is a real, published number tied to the primary source listed beside it — no spun or apocryphal restoration "stats". Where a source reports a range or multi-year average, we show it as published. Figures were last checked against their sources on 2026-07-05.

Our charts and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0 — republish them with attribution to DisasterStatus and a link back. The underlying government datasets (FEMA, USFA) are public domain; peer-reviewed and association figures remain the work of their authors (NFPA figures carry "Source: NFPA").

Cite this page

DisasterStatus, “US property damage statistics” (2026). https://disasterstatus.com/statistics

Primary sources

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