Which states are most vulnerable to natural disasters?
WalletHub took a look at the past 43 years and found that Mississippi is the state most impacted by natural disasters.
What states experience the most natural disasters?
WalletHub analyzed natural disaster data to find which states are most impacted. Flooding, hurricanes, ice storms, drought, wildfires and severe weather outbreaks... Mississippi tops the list. See where your state ranks. WalletHub's Senior Analyst Jill Gonzalez joined Weather Command.
This has been a record-setting year, with the U.S. tallying up 23 billion-dollar disasters. WalletHub looked back to 1980 to see which states suffered the most loss and which are at more risk.
The Gulf Coast takes the four top spots.
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File: Boat are partially submerged at a marina in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida, on September 29, 2022.
(GIORGIO VIERA/AFP / Getty Images)
"A lot of these states at the top, I don't think will be too surprising. Mississippi sees a lot of floods, a lot of hurricanes. Louisiana, especially still with Katrina, which was billions of dollars in one event," Senior Analyst at WalletHub Jill Gonzalez, told FOX Weather.
"Texas, especially as of late, we've seen a lot of flooding. We've seen all of these things that take out the entire electricity grid. So that's obviously very costly as a whole and on the individual level," she continued. "Florida, 40% of hurricanes that hit in America are going to hit Florida."
Mississippi: State most at risk for natural disasters
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States in Tornado Alley, that have also suffered drought recently, came in six to eight. California, often stricken by costly wildfires, came in at 33. Just five spots behind was Hawaii, where the deadliest wildfire in more than a century led to almost $6 billion in losses.
Gonzales said that in recent years, states like Hawaii that were considered relatively safe from natural disasters have been creeping up the list.
"I think a lot of people were surprised. Hawaii ranks pretty far down the list. And we look back to 1967; this is the second-worst type of natural disaster that they've ever had there," Gonzales said. "So it really is safe from a lot of these things. But more and more, we're seeing this affect states where it was not a problem before."
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File: Aerial View of Lahaina on the Coast of Maui before and after the deadly wildfire.
(Douglas Peebles/Corbis via Getty Images/Richard Olsten/Facebook / FOX Weather)
She hopes that people will take notice of the changes year-over-year and take precautions by hardening homes and businesses and reviewing insurance options.
"We're looking at these things year after year. Are there huge changes? No, not typically," she said.
"And that really is starting to change now. We're seeing states drastically move up and down these lists that we just were not used to before," she continued. "So it's important to look to other states to see what they're doing, what their protections are legally and financially. And then it's important, no matter where you live, to understand that this could be affecting you."
The study weighted the number of disasters costing at least a billion dollars in damage equally with the loss amount per capita from those disasters. They used data from the U.S. Census, National Centers for Environmental Information and the County of Maui.
File: Heavy rains and pounding waves undermined a road and boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California.
(Mark Woodward @NativeSantaCruz / FOX Weather)
2023: Record holder for the most $1 billion+ disasters in a year
The year is not over yet, but it has already won a horrifying distinction: The all-time record holder for the highest number of weather and climate disaster events with losses of over $1 billion. Across the country, 23 disasters struck, and we are still counting.
So far 2023 has seen 23 different weather and climate disasters with losses over $1 billion.
(National Centers for Environmental Information / NOAA)
The number is almost three times higher than the yearly average. NOAA calculated that the U.S. has suffered an average of 8.1 billion dollar disasters annually since 1980. On average, weather and climate losses total $59.5 billion and cost 366 people their lives each year.
Numbers have been steadily increasing, though. In the past five years, there have been an average of 18.0 disasters yearly. The cost totaled an average of $124.8 billion and 350 lives each year. The past three years saw an average of 20 disasters a year.
Since 1980, the U.S. suffered 371 billion dollar events costing $2.6 trillion and taking 16,111 lives.