Data Sources & Methodology

ZipRiskMap aggregates publicly available government data to create a unified risk profile for every US ZIP code. Here's exactly how we do it.

Data Sources

SourceDataCoverageUpdate Frequency
FBI UCRCrime rates (violent + property)~18,000 agenciesAnnual
FEMA National Risk Index18 natural hazard scoresAll US countiesAnnual
USFS WHPWildfire hazard potentialAll US countiesEvery 2-3 years
NOAA NCEISevere weather eventsAll US countiesMonthly
FEMA OpenFEMADisaster declarationsAll US countiesAs declared
US CensusZIP-to-county mappingAll US ZIPsAnnual

Scoring Methodology

All risk scores are normalized to a 0-100 scale where 0 = lowest risk and 100 = highest risk.

Individual Risk Scores

Risk TypeMethodWeight
CrimePercentile rank of combined violent + property crime rates among all reporting cities30%
FloodFEMA NRI flood composite score (already 0-100)20%
WildfireUSFS 5-class WHP mapped to 0/25/50/75/10020%
Severe WeatherPercentile rank of NOAA severe event count (last 10 years) by county15%
DisasterPercentile rank of FEMA declaration count (last 20 years) by county15%

Overall Score Formula

Overall = (Crime x 0.30) + (Flood x 0.20) + (Wildfire x 0.20) + (Weather x 0.15) + (Disaster x 0.15)

Risk Levels

0-20
LOW
21-40
MODERATE
41-60
HIGH
61-80
SEVERE
81-100
EXTREME

Data Resolution

Most government data is published at the county or city level, not at the ZIP code level. We map each ZIP code to its primary county using the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk file, then apply the county-level risk scores to the ZIP page.

This is the same approach used by industry leaders like Redfin, First Street Foundation, and RiskFactor.com. We believe in full transparency about our data resolution.

Frequently Asked Questions