Is Brown County, TX in a flood zone?
FEMA's National Risk Index puts Brown County's flood hazard at the 73th percentile nationally — a middling flood hazard by national standards — driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.9 times a year. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Brown County's flood-insurance compliance gap
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, 16.6% of them do — 346 active policies against 2,086 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Brown County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 2.2% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Where Brown County ranks
Brown County sits at rank 888 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1219 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 38,631 people live in Brown County, Texas, spread over 944.452 square miles.
Your street may differ from Brown County's average
387 of Brown County's 17,257 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Brown County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.