Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Delaware

Statewide risk profile

1.0M
Population
3
Counties
67
Departments
105
Stations

Natural Hazard Loss Profile

Expected annual loss across the 18 natural hazards in FEMA's National Risk Index. Life safety is expressed in fatality-equivalents, combining expected deaths and injuries. Property loss counts building damage only, separate from agriculture.

Natural Hazard Life Safety
5.45
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
50th highest of 52
Life Safety per 100k
0.53
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
37th highest of 52
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$283.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
48th highest of 52
Property Loss per Resident
$278
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
34th highest of 52

These figures cover natural hazards only. Structure fire, EMS, and motor vehicle incidents are not included in the National Risk Index and are not counted here, so this is not an all-cause life safety measure. For Delaware, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 50% of the life-safety total.

Delaware carries an expected 5 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $283.6M in building loss per year. Ranks compare all 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico. Computed from census tract data covering every resident, independent of fire department boundaries.

Add fire mortality, cause, and loss

Natural hazard exposure is one half of the picture. The other half is what your departments run on: fire deaths and injuries, cause of ignition, dollar loss per incident. That comes from NERIS incident reporting, and it grows as departments in Delaware enroll. Our Regional tier brings it together across your jurisdiction, with participating departments, alongside response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Talk to us about Delaware See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

75%
20%
Property (buildings): $283.6M (75.2%)
Life safety: $74.6M (19.8%)
Agriculture: $19.1M (5.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $377,267,065 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.

Agriculture is 5% of expected annual loss in Delaware, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.

Hazards Ranked Two Ways

The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.

By life-safety loss ($/yr)

Cold Wave
$37.6M
Heat Wave
$12.0M
Inland Flooding
$9.3M
Tornado
$5.7M
Earthquake
$2.7M
Winter Weather
$2.7M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$204.8M
Hurricane
$38.7M
Coastal Flooding
$19.0M
Earthquake
$9.9M
Tornado
$5.3M
Strong Wind
$2.6M

County Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across counties in this state. Click any county for its full profile.

Fire Service Profile

55%
34%
9%
Career: 2%
Combination: 55%
Volunteer: 34%
Unreported: 9%
Residents per Station
9,726
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
10.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 67 departments registered in NERIS Public for Delaware. Departments that have not registered are not counted. The mix is computed over the departments NERIS registers to Delaware; departments based elsewhere that respond into it are counted in the total above but not in the mix. Station coverage divides census population by registered stations; department service areas overlap, so their populations are not summed.

County Rankings

Counties in Delaware ranked by risk. Click column headers to sort. Click a county to see its departments.

NRI Rating is from FEMA's National Risk Index, which measures community risk across 18 natural hazards using expected annual losses, social vulnerability, and community resilience. Life-Safety Loss uses FEMA's Value of Statistical Life ($13.7M per expected fatality) to estimate annual risk to human life.

Department and station counts are derived from boundaries self-reported through NERIS Public and may not reflect current service areas. A department serving several counties is counted in each, so the Departments column adds up to more than the statewide department total. Risk metrics are computed from census tract data and are not affected by boundary accuracy. See full methodology.

Showing 3 counties
County Population Departments Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating
New Castle County 577,961 27 $35.0M Relatively Moderate
Sussex County 255,626 27 $22.9M Relatively High
Kent County 187,604 22 $16.7M Relatively Moderate
No counties match your search.
Don't see your department? Profiles exist for every department in NERIS Public with a published boundary polygon. Departments registered without a boundary, or not yet registered with NERIS, do not have a page yet because the analysis is geography-based. See why a department might be missing or contact us and we will look into it.

Risk Snapshot

10.4%
Poverty Rate
20.6%
Age 65+
14.1%
Disability Rate
6.3%
Uninsured
41.9%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.0%
Mobile Homes
13.4%
Vacancy Rate
0.6%
Wood Heat
$90,377
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

12
Last 10 Years
38
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

Our Regional tier gives county fire authorities and state fire marshals rollup dashboards across all departments in your jurisdiction: response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo