Box Elder County, UT flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Box Elder County sits at the 19.5th national percentile, among the lowest flood hazard in the country; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about once every 7 years. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Box Elder County's mapped high-risk flood zone (the Special Flood Hazard Area, or SFHA) are legally required to carry an NFIP flood policy. In practice, 27.7% of them do — 26 active policies against 94 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Box Elder County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Box Elder County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Box Elder County ranks 2571 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 851 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Box Elder County, Utah covers 5,781.304 square miles and counts roughly 64,120 residents.
Your street may differ from Box Elder County's average
38 of Box Elder County's 17,688 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Box Elder 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.