Losses from Natural Disasters: New County-Level Data and Resilient Consumer Spending

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Losses from Natural Disasters: New County-Level Data and Resilient Consumer Spending

Previous title: “Losses from Natural Disasters: County-Level Data on Damages, Injuries, and Fatalities”

Number 1156
July 2025 Revised October 2026

JEL classification: D12, G51, Q54

Authors: Matteo Crosignani, Martin Hiti, and Sneha Parthasarathy

We introduce Losses from Natural Disasters, the first comprehensive public dataset on county-level damages, injuries, and fatalities from U.S. natural disasters, and document new facts about consumer spending and household financial strain around extreme weather. We map NOAA meteorological zones to counties using geographic tools and data on population, housing, and economic activity. Using transaction and consumer credit data, we find that spending falls sharply when hurricanes and coastal disasters begin but recovers within a week, while the share of borrowers with high credit card utilization remains elevated for several quarters. Despite large damages, wildfires show no comparable spending response.

Full Article

Author Disclosure Statement(s)

Matteo Crosignani
I confirm I have no conflicts or anything else to disclose.

Martin Hiti
I confirm I have no conflicts or anything else to disclose.

Suggested Citation:
Crosignani, Matteo, Martin Hiti, and Sneha Parthasarathy. 2025. “Losses from Natural Disasters: New County-Level Data and Resilient Consumer Spending.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1156, revised October 2026. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1156

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