Query FEMA's OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Policies (v2) API to build a flood insurance policy portfolio exposure dataset
domain: fema.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Call the base endpoint https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/FimaNfipPolicies — no API key or subscription is required.
Use OData-style query params: $filter to narrow by state/county/date, $select to limit returned fields, $orderby to sort, and $top/$skip to page (default 1,000 records, max 10,000 per call).
Set $count=true on an initial call to get the total matching record count before paging through the full result with $skip.
Choose $format=json (default), jsona, csv, geojson, or parquet depending on your downstream tooling; note CSV responses omit the metadata object.
Cross-reference the DataSetFields metadata endpoint to confirm field names and primary-key fields, since v2 changed several field names and types from v1.
Known gotchas
This dataset is redacted PII (aggregated to census tract, ZIP, and one decimal of lat/long) and lags the NFIP system of record — it's for portfolio-level exposure analysis, not real-time individual policy servicing.
v1 and v2 have different field names/types; migrating an existing v1 integration requires remapping, not just an endpoint version bump.
Full downloads are large enough that Excel will silently drop data — FEMA recommends SQL, R, or Python, and the $allrecords=true (beta) flag only works combined with a file download, not a browser view.
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