What does Relatively Moderate mean on a FEMA risk rating?

Relatively Moderate is the middle tier of FEMA's National Risk Index rating scale. It means the location's risk, measured as expected annual loss, sits in the middle of the national range: higher than Very Low and Relatively Low areas, lower than Relatively High and Very High ones. It is a relative ranking against the rest of the country, not a probability of a disaster.

What is the difference between Not Applicable and No Rating?

Not Applicable means the hazard does not occur or is not assessed for that location, for example hurricane risk far inland. No Rating (or Insufficient Data) means the hazard could occur but there was not enough data to produce a reliable score. Neither is the same as a Very Low rating; both mean the index is not asserting a risk level.

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What does "Relatively Moderate" mean on my FEMA hazard rating?

"Relatively Moderate" is the middle rung of FEMA's five-tier scale: Very Low, Relatively Low, Relatively Moderate, Relatively High, Very High. It means your location's risk, measured as expected annual loss, sits in the middle of the national range, higher than most low-risk areas and lower than the high-risk ones. The word "relatively" is the key: every rating is a ranking against the rest of the country, not a probability that a disaster will strike. You may also see Not Applicable and No Rating, which are different from a low score and are explained below.

Your report grades the overall risk and each individual hazard on the same scale. Once you know what the tiers mean, the whole grid becomes readable in about a minute. Here is the full decoder.

The five rating tiers

FEMA sorts every location into one of five tiers based on where its score falls relative to all others nationally. The color coding on your report runs green to red across these tiers so the high ones stand out.

FEMA National Risk Index rating tiers. Ratings are relative to the rest of the country, based on expected annual loss.
Tier	What it means	How to read it
Very Low	Among the lowest-risk locations nationally	Little expected loss from this hazard here
Relatively Low	Below the national midpoint	Present but modest relative to most areas
Relatively Moderate	Around the middle of the national range	Worth noting; not extreme in either direction
Relatively High	Above the national midpoint	A hazard to price and plan around
Very High	Among the highest-risk locations nationally	A leading driver of risk here; check coverage

Because the tiers are relative, "Very High" does not mean a disaster is imminent, and "Very Low" does not mean impossible. It means this location ranks near the top or bottom of the country for expected loss from that hazard. To understand why the index is built on loss rather than raw odds, see what expected annual loss means.

The two special values: Not Applicable and No Rating

Some cells in your grid will not carry a tier at all. These are not the same as a low rating, and mixing them up is the most common misreading:

Not Applicable. The hazard does not occur, or is not assessed, at this location. Hurricane risk far inland, or tsunami risk in a landlocked state, will typically show as Not Applicable. It means the hazard is not part of the picture here.
No Rating (Insufficient Data). The hazard could occur, but there was not enough data to produce a reliable score. This is an absence of information, not a statement that the risk is low. If a hazard you know matters locally shows No Rating, treat it as "check this yourself," not "nothing to worry about."

The honest takeaway: a blank is not a green light. It is either "does not apply" or "we cannot say," and only the per-hazard tiers are actual risk statements.

How to read your per-hazard grid

Your report leads with the overall rating and its national percentile, then shows the individual hazards, with the highest-rated ones pulled to the top. A practical way to read it:

Start with the elevated hazards. Anything Relatively High or Very High is where your attention and money should go, that is what to insure and mitigate.
Do not stop at the overall rating. A location can rate Relatively Moderate overall while carrying a Very High rating on one specific hazard. The headline can average away the thing that matters most.
Note the flood and earthquake tiers specifically. Those two are excluded from standard homeowners insurance, so a high rating there points to a separate policy you may need. See disaster risk and home insurance.
Use the percentile for comparison. When weighing two addresses, the national percentile is the cleanest apples-to-apples number.

One sentence to remember: the tiers rank your location against the whole country for expected loss, the elevated ones tell you where to act, and a blank (Not Applicable or No Rating) is never the same as Very Low. Read the parts, not just the headline.

For how these ratings are calculated in the first place, see the methodology. To act on what you find, the relocation checklist turns the grid into next steps.

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Ratings reflect FEMA's National Risk Index, an expected-annual-loss index at the census-tract level, not an official determination for your individual lot. Reviewed 1 July 2026.