How much flood risk does Beaufort County actually carry?
Beaufort County lands at the 94.2th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 3.7 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Beaufort County's flood-insurance compliance gap
The raw NFIP numbers for Beaufort County would imply over 100% of mandated homes carry a policy, which just means FEMA's structure-count denominator for this county is wrong, not that compliance is unusually good. This is flagged rather than clipped to look normal — details in the data quality guide. Across all residential structures in Beaufort County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 39.7% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Beaufort County compares nationally
Beaufort County sits at rank 199 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 352 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Beaufort County, South Carolina covers 576.022 square miles and counts roughly 201,775 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Beaufort County
FEMA counts 71,094 residential structures in Beaufort County overall, 28,198 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Beaufort County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Beaufort County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.