Sixteen of the twenty-five ZIP codes with the most flood insurance claims in the United States sit inside a single metro area: greater New Orleans, Louisiana. The top four — Marrero (70072), Kenner (70065), New Orleans 70122, and Metairie (70003) — are all in Jefferson or Orleans Parish, separated by less than fifteen miles of road. Marrero holds the national record with 17,534 cumulative FEMA claims, more than any other ZIP code in the country. Chalmette (70043), Harvey (70058), Gretna (70056), Slidell (70458), and La Place (70068) round out what amounts to a flood-claims corridor running along the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River delta. The geographic concentration is not coincidence; it is the physical consequence of building a major metropolitan region at and below sea level at the mouth of the continent's largest river.
Welcome to the 2026 Flood Risk Rankings. We analyzed 26,172 ZIP codes using FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims data collected since the program's inception, and ranked each ZIP by total number of historical flood insurance claims filed. The result is a single-metric ranking that answers one question: which U.S. ZIP codes have accumulated the most documented flood losses in the federal insurance record? Each entry includes total claims, aggregate payouts, and average claim amounts, giving three different lenses on the same underlying exposure.
What the data reveals. Louisiana's dominance in the worst-claims tier is structural, not cyclical. The New Orleans metro sits an average of six feet below sea level; much of eastern New Orleans, eastern Jefferson Parish, and St. Bernard Parish (Chalmette) sits lower still. The Mississippi River delta is actively subsiding — losing land mass each decade — while the Gulf of Mexico continues to warm. That combination produces recurring storm surge, riverine flooding, and rainfall-driven inundation from events far smaller than a major hurricane. The data captures all of it: Katrina (2005), Rita (2005), Isaac (2012), Ida (2021), and the dozens of named and unnamed storms in between. The secondary cluster in the rankings — Beach Haven, NJ (08008, #5 with 14,170 claims), Ocean City, NJ (08226, #18), Wildwood, NJ (08260, #21), and Long Beach, NY (11561, #17) — tells a parallel story. These are barrier-island and coastal communities that absorbed catastrophic storm surge from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, a single event that generated tens of thousands of NFIP claims in a compressed geography.
The cleanest end of the list. The twenty-five ZIP codes with the fewest claims all recorded exactly one historical flood insurance claim each. The first sixteen best-performing ZIPs are in the 09xxx series — overseas APO/FPO military postal codes — which appear in the NFIP database but represent facilities with minimal residential insurance exposure. The remaining nine best ZIPs are all in inland New Jersey: Stanton (08885), Somerset (08875), Readington (08870), Oldwick (08858), Trenton (08608 and 08601), Sergeantsville (08557), Rosemont (08556), Princeton (08544), and Imlaystown (08526). Their single-claim records reflect high elevation, distance from tidal water, and the absence of any catastrophic flooding event in the NFIP era. At the state level, Texas leads the country with 1,594 ranked ZIPs, followed by Pennsylvania (1,529), New York (1,517), California (1,430), and Florida (1,141) — the five states with the broadest geographic and population footprints in the dataset.
How to read this ranking. Cumulative claims count is not the same as current risk. A high claim total reflects historical exposure, which is a reasonable proxy for future risk in most cases — but it is also shaped by factors that can shift: NFIP participation rates, changes to flood-zone maps, levee and barrier construction, and how many insured structures existed in a ZIP at the time of each flood event. A ZIP with 15,000 historical claims and a newly completed flood barrier is a different bet than a ZIP with 15,000 claims and no infrastructure change. Likewise, the data captures only insured losses: properties outside Special Flood Hazard Areas are not required to carry NFIP policies, and many do not. A ZIP code with sparse NFIP participation may have experienced significant uninsured flooding that does not appear in this ranking at all.
What this ranking does not tell you. It does not capture uninsured flood losses, self-insured commercial properties, or damage claims filed through private flood insurers outside the NFIP. It does not incorporate post-2020 FEMA Risk Rating 2.0 maps, which remapped flood exposure for roughly 23 million policyholders using updated climate and hydrological models. It does not reflect projected future risk under climate-adjusted sea-level rise scenarios or updated precipitation frequency estimates. And it does not tell you the condition, elevation, or flood-mitigation features of any specific building within a ZIP. For any individual property decision, the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, a licensed surveyor's elevation certificate, and a conversation with a licensed flood insurance agent are the right next steps.
26,172 ZIP codes analyzed · Data last refreshed 2026-04-12
26,172 ZIP codes analyzed · Worst score: 17,534
25 Worst ZIP Codes
| # | ZIP Code | City | State | Flood Claims | Total Paid | Avg Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 70072 | Marrero | LA | 17,534 | $253,612K | $14,464 |
| 2 | 70065 | Kenner | LA | 16,043 | $571,894K | $35,648 |
| 3 | 70122 | New Orleans | LA | 15,573 | $1,047,391K | $67,257 |
| 4 | 70003 | Metairie | LA | 15,465 | $415,584K | $26,873 |
| 5 | 08008 | Beach Haven | NJ | 14,170 | $410,396K | $28,962 |
| 6 | 70458 | Slidell | LA | 13,711 | $846,653K | $61,750 |
| 7 | 70126 | New Orleans | LA | 13,160 | $911,998K | $69,301 |
| 8 | 70043 | Chalmette | LA | 12,005 | $1,163,208K | $96,894 |
| 9 | 70058 | Harvey | LA | 11,588 | $120,474K | $10,396 |
| 10 | 70119 | New Orleans | LA | 11,404 | $627,832K | $55,054 |
| 11 | 70124 | New Orleans | LA | 11,140 | $1,299,305K | $116,634 |
| 12 | 70125 | New Orleans | LA | 10,829 | $471,733K | $43,562 |
| 13 | 70001 | Metairie | LA | 10,809 | $310,253K | $28,703 |
| 14 | 70117 | New Orleans | LA | 10,175 | $420,737K | $41,350 |
| 15 | 70118 | New Orleans | LA | 9,994 | $328,850K | $32,905 |
| 16 | 70056 | Gretna | LA | 9,878 | $111,112K | $11,248 |
| 17 | 11561 | Long Beach | NY | 9,653 | $490,556K | $50,819 |
| 18 | 08226 | Ocean City | NJ | 9,482 | $183,781K | $19,382 |
| 19 | 36542 | Gulf Shores | AL | 9,455 | $216,224K | $22,869 |
| 20 | 70115 | New Orleans | LA | 8,840 | $196,588K | $22,238 |
| 21 | 08260 | Wildwood | NJ | 8,825 | $102,227K | $11,584 |
| 22 | 33908 | Fort Myers | FL | 8,397 | $885,605K | $105,467 |
| 23 | 77539 | Dickinson | TX | 8,378 | $454,295K | $54,225 |
| 24 | 70068 | La Place | LA | 8,376 | $631,971K | $75,450 |
| 25 | 33040 | Key West | FL | 8,235 | $272,673K | $33,111 |
25 Best ZIP Codes
| # | ZIP Code | City | State | Flood Claims | Total Paid | Avg Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 09671 | — | — | 1 | $8K | $8,080 |
| 2 | 09178 | — | — | 1 | $10K | $9,864 |
| 3 | 09168 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 4 | 09132 | — | — | 1 | $29K | $29,062 |
| 5 | 09038 | — | — | 1 | $1K | $1,214 |
| 6 | 08885 | Stanton | NJ | 1 | $5K | $4,863 |
| 7 | 08875 | Somerset | NJ | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | 08870 | Readington | NJ | 1 | $65K | $65,031 |
| 9 | 08864 | — | — | 1 | $20K | $20,001 |
| 10 | 08858 | Oldwick | NJ | 1 | $231K | $231,300 |
| 11 | 08849 | — | — | 1 | $1K | $521 |
| 12 | 08806 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 13 | 08743 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 14 | 08737 | — | — | 1 | $41K | $40,561 |
| 15 | 08725 | — | — | 1 | $48K | $47,821 |
| 16 | 08700 | — | — | 1 | $172K | $172,022 |
| 17 | 08694 | — | — | 1 | $14K | $14,317 |
| 18 | 08608 | Trenton | NJ | 1 | — | — |
| 19 | 08601 | Trenton | NJ | 1 | $9K | $9,382 |
| 20 | 08600 | — | — | 1 | $23K | $23,431 |
| 21 | 08573 | — | — | 1 | $133K | $133,000 |
| 22 | 08557 | Sergeantsville | NJ | 1 | $1K | $530 |
| 23 | 08556 | Rosemont | NJ | 1 | — | — |
| 24 | 08544 | Princeton | NJ | 1 | — | — |
| 25 | 08526 | Imlaystown | NJ | 1 | $4K | $3,638 |
Rankings by State
| State | ZIP Codes |
|---|---|
| Texas | 1,594 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,529 |
| New York | 1,517 |
| California | 1,430 |
| Florida | 1,141 |
| Illinois | 916 |
| Ohio | 900 |
| Virginia | 745 |
| North Carolina | 745 |
| West Virginia | 653 |
| Missouri | 641 |
| New Jersey | 623 |
| Louisiana | 605 |
| Kentucky | 561 |
| Michigan | 554 |
| Indiana | 545 |
| Georgia | 511 |
| Minnesota | 507 |
| Massachusetts | 506 |
| Wisconsin | 494 |
| Alabama | 472 |
| Tennessee | 470 |
| Washington | 452 |
| Iowa | 441 |
| Maryland | 413 |
Methodology
Flood risk rankings are based on FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims data. ZIP codes are ranked by total number of historical flood insurance claims. Additional context includes total payouts, average claim amounts, and dominant flood zones. Data source: FEMA NFIP Claims Data.
Last updated: 2026-06-09.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are these rankings calculated?
Rankings are based on federal agency data including EPA, FEMA, USGS, and PHMSA. Each ZIP code receives a score based on the specific risk factors for this category. See the methodology section above for details.
How often are rankings updated?
Rankings are regenerated quarterly using the latest available data. The date shown reflects the most recent update.
Explore More 2026 Rankings
- Lead Risk Rankings 2026
- Infrastructure Risk Rankings 2026
- Wildfire Risk Rankings 2026
- PFAS Contamination Rankings 2026
- School Safety Rankings 2026
- Mold Risk Rankings 2026
- Earthquake Risk Rankings 2026
- CO & Gas Safety Rankings 2026
- Superfund Risk Rankings 2026
- Air Quality Rankings 2026
- Home Safety Rankings 2026