Deloitte-NEMA National Risk Study 2025: Changing landscapes in state emergency management
A nationwide survey reveals funding, workforce, and technology challenges shaping state emergency management today
Emergency management in the United States is evolving amid a confluence of trends. To better understand how these agencies are equipped to fulfill their missions, the Deloitte Center for Government Insights, in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Association and with consulting support from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Climate School, conducted a nationwide survey of state and territorial emergency management directors between October 2024 and March 2025.
The survey aimed to uncover possible gaps in understanding how states currently define their priorities, capabilities, and challenges as they continue to evolve and adapt to novel events. It also sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of how technology, workforce, processes, and funding impact the emergency management priorities of state and territorial agencies.
Findings from the survey indicate that state and territorial emergency management agencies face challenges as emergency management evolves. Of these, funding tops the list of concerns and is interconnected with the challenge of hiring and retaining skilled staff in a competitive market. Technology is another hurdle—many agencies want to use advanced tools like artificial intelligence, but they’re not quite there yet. And while emergency managers would prefer to spend more time on prevention and preparedness, most are busy responding to emergencies as they happen.
In total, 55 emergency management directors across the National Emergency Management Association’s membership were engaged, with 42 responding from all 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions. Additionally, 14 interviews with state emergency management directors were conducted to further explore the key themes and insights from the survey.
Interconnected challenges shaping the future of emergency management
As the emergency management landscape evolves, leaders face complex, interconnected challenges. The survey identified several key insights that shed light on both their current struggles and future priorities:
Funding: Funding appears to be the primary concern in emergency management, with 64% of respondents highlighting it as their most significant challenge, outweighing workforce, policy changes, and technological issues. Survey results indicate that if states had more funding, the top two areas they would invest in would be workforce (97%) and technology and infrastructure (89%).
Mandate: State emergency managers contend with a broad range of threats and hazards. Over the past five years, most respondents reported responding to cyberattacks, utility disruptions, active-shooter events, and industrial accidents, alongside natural hazards like floods, fires, and tornadoes, which are traditionally associated with emergency management.
Workforce: Agencies broadly reported struggling to retain and recruit staff. The top three challenges they face are budget constraints (81%), a competitive job market (81%), and a shortage of qualified candidates (64%). Only 25% of directors indicated that their employees have the necessary skills to effectively manage emergency conditions. The emergency management workforce requires a unique blend of soft and hard skills, and the increasing demand for emergency management professionals has intensified competition for qualified candidates, further underscoring this challenge. Respondents emphasized that soft skills, such as decision-making under pressure and effective interagency coordination, are increasingly critical for the future workforce.
Technology: Nearly 60% of state emergency managers report having an intermediate level of technology capability. The most commonly used technologies include geographic information systems, web-based emergency operations centers, and grant management solutions.
Respondents noted a gap between the technologies currently in use and those that agencies would like to adopt, such as AI, big data, and advanced risk modeling. This gap is not due to a lack of interest; rather, 85% of respondents cited infrastructure limitations, along with limited familiarity with the technologies, constrained financial resources, and procurement challenges.
Despite these barriers, respondents widely agree that AI and machine learning capabilities would greatly benefit their organizations. As a state emergency management director explains, “At the state level, we’re still trying to figure out how to even use AI, and there’s hesitation because the state legislature is still figuring out the parameters for how we can even use AI.”
Resilience: Agencies would like to focus more on mitigation and preparedness, but that is not where their time is currently spent. The most significant difference lies in mitigation, where most respondents indicated that they would prefer to spend 44% of their time on it, but currently spend only 5%. This underscores that emergency managers often feel stuck in a constant cycle of response and recovery, since “there is always something going on.”
Future-focused considerations for emergency management agencies
The evolving emergency management environment creates a new imperative for states to critically consider their future strategies. The insights from this survey reveal an interconnected set of challenges—the expanding mandate of agencies has stretched available funding and workforce resources, resulting in a continual state of response. This makes it challenging for agencies to dedicate additional time to preferred areas like mitigation and preparedness, or to invest in fully leveraging advanced technology. These findings invite consideration of strategic questions that can inform forward-looking discussions on how states might evolve their approaches and capabilities.
Strategic questions to guide future thinking
- Given the varying financial exposures and risk profiles across different regions, how can the cost burden for emergency management be shared among stakeholders?
- What should states prioritize, and how can they best align resources, capabilities, and stakeholder support?
- How are states going to build the workforce of the future if they take more responsibility across the emergency management life cycle?
- What are the barriers to adopting advanced technologies that can help address today’s evolving challenges and enhance efficiency?
- How can states address the barriers preventing them from taking a more proactive approach to emergency management?
Let’s make this work.
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Ragini Basu
Mike Byrne
Alex Haseley
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Ragini Basu
Trina Sheets
We thank the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), Columbia University, and Deloitte professionals who helped to develop the survey and execute, analyze, and create the report.
From the NEMA, we thank Executive Director Trina Sheets, Deputy Director Matt Cowles, and their team, as well as all the state and territory emergency management directors who participated in this survey.
From the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, we thank Director Jeff Schlegelmilch and his team for their consulting support: senior staff associate Jonathan Sury, senior project manager Lauren Esposito, and project manager Lucia Bragg.
At Deloitte, we thank Ragini Basu for leading the survey, along with her team of subject matter specialists: Mike Byrne and Alex Haseley. Additional thanks to the Deloitte survey, data analysis, graphics, interviews, and writing teams: Jeff McLeod, Jordy Scholhamer, Stefanie Chang, Yesenia Arreguin, Betsy Lopez, Kyle Overly, Bobbie Harper, Maryam Kyari, Ameyali Salazar, and Costa Sardelis. We are also grateful to the Deloitte Center for Government Insights team of David Noone, John O’Leary, and Sushumna Agarwal for their data analysis, writing, and operational support.
Cover image by: Jim Slatton; Adobe Stock
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