Below are results from various US government data that look at the Top 10 US States with the most natural disasters by 1) square miles, and 2) population.  See the explanations below.  Although both methods demonstrate that natural disaster are rare, when these occur the destruction can be devastating and fatal.

Top 10 States with the most natural disasters per square miles, since 1953.

This list takes into account the number of disasters per square miles for each state.  Although this is not a traditional way of looking at natural disaster data, this method takes into account the size of the state in square miles and the number of disasters and shows the ratio between them.  Simply stated, smaller states will appear more dangerous because they may have a larger ratio of natural disasters per square mile.

Top 10 states with the most natural disasters per population size (since 1953).

This list shows the number of disasters per person by state.  This method of looking at natural disasters is another unorthodox method that looks at the total population of a state and the number of natural disasters.  So in essences this calculation gives you the number of natural disasters per person, of course (and fortunately), a very minute number.   You could multiply the ratio by 100,000 and get the number of disasters 100,000 people.  This would yield 7.8 natural disasters per 100,000 people for South Dakota, and so on.  This method makes states with the smallest populations seem more dangerous but this may not necessarily be the case since many of states with the largest area in square miles have some of the smallest populations (i.e. Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, etc.).  Of course, the larger geographic area means more probability of a natural disaster occurring within its state borders.

Sources: FEMA, 2010 US Census, USGS.

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