Interactive tool
Seismic Risk Percentile Lookup
Pick a US state to see how it ranks against the other 38 tracked in total earthquake count and maximum recorded magnitude, with the matching USGS Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) tier and FEMA Seismic Design Category.
This tool, in one line
10 of 39 tracked U.S. states clear the higher-hazard FEMA D/E design tier -- pick your state above for its exact percentile and PGA estimate.
How to read this tool
Percentiles are computed against the 50 US states using the PlainQuake aggregation of USGS ComCat (2005-2025). The PGA tier is a heuristic mapping from maximum recorded magnitude and count rank, for the authoritative site-specific value, query the USGS Unified Hazard Tool at earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/interactive.
FEMA Seismic Design Category (SDC) determines which provisions of ASCE 7 apply to a building's lateral force-resisting system. SDC A-B require basic detailing; SDC D-E demand intermediate or special seismic moment frames, base isolation, or similar engineered measures.
According to the US Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program, PlainQuake's figures are rendered directly from 315,341 recorded M4+ earthquakes and 14,428 significant M6+ events (USGS ComCat, 2005-present) -- no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-07-19.