At a glance
What this dataset shows
- The series covers 1953–2025 and contains 2,829 unique declaration numbers.
- The highest annual count in this snapshot is 102; use the table for the exact year.
- A declaration count is an administrative measure, not a loss estimate or risk score.
01 / Visual summary
Major-disaster declarations by year
Each bar is one deduplicated declaration number in the checked historical snapshot.
02 / Exact values
Exact annual counts
FEMA major disaster declarations by declaration year, 1953–2025.
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 1953 | 13 |
| 1954 | 17 |
| 1955 | 18 |
| 1956 | 16 |
| 1957 | 16 |
| 1958 | 7 |
| 1959 | 7 |
| 1960 | 12 |
| 1961 | 12 |
| 1962 | 22 |
| 1963 | 20 |
| 1964 | 25 |
| 1965 | 25 |
| 1966 | 11 |
| 1967 | 10 |
| 1968 | 18 |
| 1969 | 29 |
| 1970 | 17 |
| 1971 | 17 |
| 1972 | 48 |
| 1973 | 46 |
| 1974 | 46 |
| 1975 | 38 |
| 1976 | 28 |
| 1977 | 22 |
| 1978 | 25 |
| 1979 | 41 |
| 1980 | 23 |
| 1981 | 15 |
| 1982 | 24 |
| 1983 | 21 |
| 1984 | 34 |
| 1985 | 27 |
| 1986 | 28 |
| 1987 | 23 |
| 1988 | 11 |
| 1989 | 31 |
| 1990 | 38 |
| 1991 | 43 |
| 1992 | 45 |
| 1993 | 32 |
| 1994 | 36 |
| 1995 | 32 |
| 1996 | 75 |
| 1997 | 44 |
| 1998 | 65 |
| 1999 | 50 |
| 2000 | 45 |
| 2001 | 45 |
| 2002 | 49 |
| 2003 | 56 |
| 2004 | 68 |
| 2005 | 48 |
| 2006 | 52 |
| 2007 | 63 |
| 2008 | 75 |
| 2009 | 59 |
| 2010 | 81 |
| 2011 | 99 |
| 2012 | 47 |
| 2013 | 56 |
| 2014 | 45 |
| 2015 | 41 |
| 2016 | 46 |
| 2017 | 55 |
| 2018 | 56 |
| 2019 | 53 |
| 2020 | 102 |
| 2021 | 55 |
| 2022 | 43 |
| 2023 | 60 |
| 2024 | 87 |
| 2025 | 40 |
05 / Context
What a long-run FEMA history can answer
The checked snapshot contains 2,829 deduplicated major-disaster declarations from 1953 through 2025. The series is useful for describing how the number of declared disasters changes over time, but a declaration is an administrative record and does not measure insured loss, repair cost, severity or the number of damaged properties.
The page keeps one declaration number as one event and groups it by the year of the declaration date. That makes the annual series readable and prevents multiple source rows for the same disaster number from inflating the count.
- Counts are major-disaster records with declaration type DR.
- The period ends with the checked 2025 snapshot.
- Use the state and incident-type tables for a different cut of the same administrative record.
06 / Context
How to read the trend
Year-to-year changes can reflect the timing and geography of declarations as well as the underlying hazard season. A high count should therefore be described as more recorded declarations in this selection, not as proof that property damage was higher.
For reuse, keep the period, declaration type, deduplication rule and retrieval date beside the chart. That context is what makes a long historical count reproducible rather than a floating statistic.
Conclusion
Use the table with its definition.
Use this history as a consistent time series of FEMA major-disaster declaration records. Preserve the DR filter, the deduplication rule and the 1953–2025 snapshot date when you cite or republish it.
Sources and limits
Read the source notes before reusing the numbers.
This page preserves the dataset scope, period and limitations. The figures are not a forecast, an insurance estimate, a measure of individual risk, or a ranking beyond the selection described above.
OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2
Primary declaration fields, dates, incident types and assistance-program flags.
Open official source ↗FEMA disaster declarations
Official human-readable declaration lookup and definitions.
Open official source ↗OpenAI assisted with explanatory prose. Tables and charts are rendered from checked local source snapshots.