All free tier data is from public sources. We do not create or modify the underlying data — we integrate, spatially join, and present it. The original datasets are freely available from the agencies listed below. Where data has known limitations (age, coverage gaps, methodology caveats), we've noted them.
The National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) is the modern national incident reporting system for the U.S. fire service, replacing NFIRS. The public dataset provides department boundaries (jurisdictional polygons), station locations, department names, department type (career/combination/volunteer), and basic organizational metadata for enrolled departments.
Department pages on Risk & Response are generated for all NERIS Public departments with a valid boundary polygon. Department names, boundaries, and station counts displayed on each page come directly from NERIS without modification.
The American Community Survey is an ongoing Census Bureau survey that produces estimates of demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics for communities across the United States. The 5-year estimates pool five years of survey responses to produce reliable estimates at small geographies — including the census tract level used throughout Risk & Response.
We use the 2020–2024 5-year estimates (released December 2024), which are the most recent available. ACS estimates have associated margins of error, which are larger for small populations and rare characteristics. Metrics are displayed as-is from ACS; we do not smooth or adjust estimates.
The National Risk Index is FEMA's dataset of natural hazard risk at the census tract level. For each of 18 natural hazard types, NRI provides a risk score (0–100, representing relative national risk), a risk rating (Very Low through Very High), and an Expected Annual Loss estimate in dollars. Scores integrate hazard frequency/magnitude, community exposure, and social vulnerability.
We use NRI version 1.2 (December 2025). NRI scores are displayed on a fixed national scale — they are not adjusted or renormalized. A score of 80 means the tract is in the top 20% of risk nationally for that hazard, regardless of which department page you're viewing.
OpenFEMA provides machine-readable access to all Presidential and Secretarial Major Disaster Declarations and Emergency Declarations going back to 1953. Each declaration record includes the declaration type, incident type (flood, severe storm, hurricane, etc.), date, and affected counties.
We match declarations to departments by county FIPS code. Statewide declarations (county code "000") are excluded. The dataset is continuously updated as new declarations are issued; our free tier pages reflect declarations through early 2026 and are refreshed annually.
HIFLD is a DHS/CISA program that publishes point-level data on critical infrastructure facilities across the United States. We use five facility layers: hospitals, nursing homes, public schools, private schools, and child care centers. Each facility record includes location, name, address, and facility-specific attributes.
Note: HIFLD data is no longer publicly available as of 2025. We are using the last public release. Facility counts on department pages reflect that snapshot and will not be updated until a new public release is made available.
Facilities are spatially joined to department boundaries — a facility is counted for a department if its point location falls within the department's boundary polygon. Approximately 85% of facilities match to a department; the remainder are in unincorporated or rural areas with no NERIS boundary coverage.
Questions about the data?
If a metric on your department's page looks incorrect, or you have questions about how a specific data source is used, email us and we'll take a look.
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