States Most Impacted by Natural Disasters

From raging wildfires to tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, the U.S. sees its share of natural disasters every year. This year has been especially tragic, though. Hawaii, a state relatively sheltered from natural disasters in recent years, has experienced the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, which have caused $5.5 billion in damage and claimed nearly 100 lives, with authorities expecting the damage and death toll to grow significantly as search efforts continue.

Fifteen other natural disasters have already caused over $1 billion in damage each during 2023. Millions of Americans’ homes and workplaces have been damaged or destroyed by severe weather, leaving people to rebuild while still dealing with mental and emotional scars. However, people in some states are much less prone to having to deal with these tragic events than others. In order to shed light on the states most impacted by natural disasters, WalletHub compared the 50 states across two key metrics. Those metrics are the number of climate disasters causing at least $1 billion in damage since 1980, as well as the loss amount per capita of those disasters. Hawaii’s ongoing tragedy has affected the state’s ranking, but it is still relatively low due to the lack of natural disasters causing at least $1 billion in damage in previous years.

Main Findings

States Most Impacted by Natural Disasters

Notes: *No. 1 = Most Impacted by Natural Disasters
With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the highest number of climate disasters, and the highest loss amount from climate disasters, respectively.

Methodology

In order to determine which states are most impacted by natural disasters, WalletHub compared the 50 states across two relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of vulnerability to natural disasters.

We then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

• Number of Climate Disasters Causing $1 Billion+ in Damage (1980-2023): Full Weight (~50.00 Points)
• Loss Amount from Climate Disasters Causing $1 Billion+ in Damage per Capita (1980-2023): Full Weight (~50.00 Points)

 
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, County of Maui and the National Centers for Environmental Information.