Is Brown County, WI in a flood zone?
FEMA's National Risk Index puts Brown County's flood hazard at the 91.9th 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 1.1 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
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, 10% of them do — 266 active policies against 2,666 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Brown County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.6% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Brown County against the rest of the country
Brown County sits at rank 271 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 267 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 273,909 people live in Brown County, Wisconsin, spread over 530.096 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Brown County
FEMA counts 80,609 residential structures in Brown County overall, 452 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 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.