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Editorial

Most disaster-prone counties in New Mexico

New Mexico has 411 county-level FEMA disaster declarations across 33 counties. The dominant hazard type is fire. Lincoln County leads with 35 declarations, followed by Otero County and San Miguel County.

This ranking shows every county in New Mexico ordered by how many times FEMA has issued a disaster declaration affecting it. Counties near coastlines, river systems, or wildfire corridors tend to appear at the top because the same geographic exposure produces recurring events across decades.

Each county links to a full disaster history page with the complete declaration timeline, hazard type breakdown, decade trends, and whatever FEMA spending data is available. For a national view, see the most disaster-prone counties in America page.

New Mexico ranking

All counties by FEMA declaration count

#CountyDeclarationsTop hazardFirst yearLatest year
1Lincoln County35Fire19652025
2Otero County24Fire19842025
3San Miguel County21Fire19652023
4Sandoval County21Fire19732022
5Mora County20Fire19652023
6Colfax County18Fire19652022
7Rio Arriba County16Fire19732024
8Valencia County15Fire19732025
9Torrance County14Fire19852023
10Grant County13Flood19722025
11Sierra County13Severe Storm19722020
12Catron County12Flood19722020
13Socorro County12Fire20002020
14Bernalillo County11Fire20002020
15Eddy County11Fire19842020
16McKinley County11Flood19722020
17San Juan County11Fire19772024
18Doña Ana County10Flood19722025
19Hidalgo County10Flood19722020
20Los Alamos County10Fire20002022
21Santa Fe County10Fire19732020
22Taos County10Flood19732020
23Chaves County9Flood19982025
24Cibola County9Flood20002020
25Guadalupe County9Severe Storm19982020
26Harding County8Biological19732020
27De Baca County7Biological19982020
28Lea County7Biological19922020
29Luna County7Severe Storm19992020
30Quay County7Biological19772020
31Roosevelt County7Biological19772020
32Union County7Biological19732020
33Curry County6Biological20002020