Coastal Demographics

The entire population of Rhode Island—1.1 million people—lives in coastal portions of the state.

Coastal Economy

Rhode Island’s coastal economy employs more than 467,000 people annually, earning a total of $24.4 billion. This equates to $59.3 billion in gross domestic product.

Natural Hazards

Two billion-dollar weather disaster affected Rhode Island in 2018—and a total of eight affected the state between 2010 and 2018. The most expensive of these was Hurricane Sandy, which caused a total of $72.8 billion in damages to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. *