Our Data & Methodology
Every tool on Safety & Crime is built on publicly available data, and we believe you should know exactly where each number comes from — including which figures are official government statistics and which are our own estimates. This page explains all of it, tool by tool.
Population & Home Values
Population and median home value figures on our ZIP Code Search come directly from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year estimates, queried live for each ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA). When a figure comes from the Census, the card is labeled "Census" and the expanded detail panel lists the source. For a small number of ZIP codes the Census has no ZCTA record — typically P.O. Box-only ZIPs or very new ones — and in those cases we fall back to a regional estimate, clearly labeled "Est."
The ACS 5-Year survey is the most reliable public source for small-area demographics in the United States. Because it aggregates five years of survey responses, figures update annually but represent a rolling average rather than a single point in time.
Safety Scores & Crime Rates
Our safety scores and crime rate figures are statistical estimates, not official police data. The United States has no unified, publicly available database of crime statistics at the ZIP code level — police agencies report at the department or jurisdiction level, coverage is voluntary and incomplete, and ZIP codes don't align with police district boundaries. Any website showing "crime by ZIP code" is modeling, whether it says so or not. We say so.
How the estimates work
Our model assigns each ZIP code a baseline derived from the crime profile of its broader region (using the ZIP's prefix, which groups geographically related areas), adjusted for population density patterns and urban/suburban/rural classification. Violent and property crime figures are expressed per 100,000 residents to make areas comparable. The Safety Score (0–100) and letter grade summarize these estimates relative to national patterns — a score of 64 means the model places that ZIP as safer than roughly 64% of U.S. ZIP codes.
What the estimates are good for — and not
These estimates are useful for getting a general sense of how an area compares to national patterns and for side-by-side comparisons of regions. They are not suitable for insurance, legal, lending, or security decisions, and they cannot capture block-by-block variation within a ZIP code. For official statistics, we recommend the FBI's Crime Data Explorer and your local police department's published reports, both linked from our About page.
Weather Forecasts
Every forecast on our Weather tool comes live from the National Weather Service API — the same forecasts produced by NWS meteorologists at 120+ regional offices. Supplementary metrics in the detail view (humidity, feels-like temperature, wind gusts, pressure, visibility, UV index, sunrise/sunset) come from Open-Meteo, an open-data weather service, and air quality readings use the EPA's US AQI scale via Open-Meteo's air quality feed. Radar imagery is provided by RainViewer, showing real weather radar from the past two hours plus a short-term projection. Moon phases are computed astronomically and don't rely on any external source.
Earthquake Data
Our Earthquake tool queries the USGS earthquake catalog live for every search: recorded quakes within roughly 100 miles of the searched location over the past 30 days, plus significant (M4+) historical events over the past 50 years. Magnitudes, depths, times, and locations are exactly as recorded by the USGS seismic network. The "Seismic Risk" label (Low / Moderate / Elevated) is our simple summary based on the count and size of historical quakes in the area — it's a readability aid, not an official USGS hazard rating. For engineering-grade hazard data, see the USGS National Seismic Hazard Model.
Flood Data
The Flood tool combines three official sources. Flood zone designations come from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — the same maps used for federal flood insurance requirements — queried at the searched ZIP code's center point. Active flood warnings, watches, and advisories come live from the National Weather Service alert system. River and stream levels come from USGS Water Services' network of real-time gauges.
One important caveat: a ZIP code covers a wide area, and flood zones can change from one street to the next. Our lookup checks the ZIP's central point, so it's a starting reference — for a property-specific determination (the kind lenders require), use FEMA's Flood Map Service Center with the exact address.
Wildfire Data
Our Wildfire tool shows active incidents from the National Interagency Fire Center's public WFIGS feed — the interagency system used to coordinate wildland firefighting — including each fire's reported size, containment percentage, and discovery date, refreshed as agencies update their incidents. Worldwide major fire events come from NASA's Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET), and Red Flag Warnings and other fire weather alerts come live from the National Weather Service. Note that incident data is operational: newly reported fires can take time to appear, and acreage figures update as incidents are mapped. The feed also includes prescribed burns — planned, managed fires — which we label separately from wildfires.
Tsunami Data
Historical tsunami records on our Tsunami tool come from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information Global Historical Tsunami Database — the standard scholarly record of tsunami events, including dates, source causes, maximum water heights, casualties, and damage estimates. Live U.S. alert status comes from the National Weather Service, which operates the national Tsunami Warning Centers. Historical entries vary in completeness, especially for older events: a missing wave height or casualty figure means the database has no verified value, not that the value was zero.
Recall Data
Vehicle recall results on our Recalls tool come directly from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recall database, queried live by year, make, and model. Consumer product recalls — both the latest feed and keyword search — come from the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall database, which covers past recalls as well as current ones. One important limit: a year/make/model search shows every campaign affecting that model, but some campaigns only cover specific production runs. For a definitive answer about an individual vehicle, use NHTSA's official VIN lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls — we link to it throughout the tool.
Sex Offender Registry Lookups
Our Registry Lookup page is intentionally a router, not a database. Every result comes from either the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW, operated by the U.S. Department of Justice) or one of the 50 states' or D.C.'s official registry systems, opened directly on those government sites. We don't store, cache, or reproduce any registry data ourselves — meaning the information you see is always the current authoritative version from the responsible agency, and any errors or removals happen at the source. This is deliberate: registry data is legally sensitive, and mirroring it creates accuracy and liability problems we'd rather not introduce between the public and the government's own maintained record.
Corrections & Updates
Live data (weather, earthquakes, flood alerts, river gauges) refreshes on every search. Census figures update when the Census Bureau publishes new ACS releases, typically annually. Our regional crime estimates are reviewed and recalibrated periodically. If you believe any figure on this site is wrong or misleading, we genuinely want to know — reach out via the contact information on our About page and we'll investigate.