Brown County, MN: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Brown County scores at the 44.5th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Low" — below the national norm for flood hazard. 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 once every 2 years. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Brown County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Brown 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, 9.7% of them do — 14 active policies against 145 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Brown County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Brown County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Brown County ranks 1806 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1597 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Brown County, Minnesota is home to about 25,710 people across 611.109 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Brown County's average
Across all of Brown County's 15,800 residential structures, 29 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Brown 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.