Broward County, FL flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Broward County sits at the 99.4th national percentile, among the highest flood hazard in the country; split between inland river flooding (about 2.5 times a year) and coastal storm surge (about 2.6 times a year). This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Broward County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Broward 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, 76.1% of them do — 93,955 active policies against 123,414 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 19.2% of all residential structures in Broward County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Broward County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Broward County ranks 22 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 17 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 2,037,472 people live in Broward County, Florida, spread over 1,202.982 square miles.
Your street may differ from Broward County's average
Across all of Broward County's 652,397 residential structures, 125,204 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Broward County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Broward County's coastal exposure is covered in the coastal vs. inland flood risk guide, including how storm surge risk differs from river flooding.