Adams County, PA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Adams County scores at the 76.2th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. The hazard here is driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.6 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Adams County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Out of 683 homes FEMA counts inside Adams County's mapped flood zone, 172 carry the flood policy federal law requires there — 25.2% compliance, short of full coverage. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.7% of all residential structures in Adams County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Adams County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Adams County ranks 783 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 586 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Adams County, Pennsylvania is home to about 107,914 people across 518.576 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Adams County's average
FEMA counts 39,360 residential structures in Adams County overall, 266 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Adams County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. If you're unsure why any of this insurance requirement exists at all, the SFHA explainer covers it from first principles.