Brunswick County, NC flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Brunswick County sits at the 89.4th national percentile, well above the national norm for flood hazard; split between inland river flooding (about 2.1 times a year) and coastal storm surge (about 3.7 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.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Brunswick County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Brunswick 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, 78% of them do — 10,108 active policies against 12,962 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 21.5% of all residential structures in Brunswick County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Brunswick County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Brunswick County ranks 351 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 419 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 167,112 people live in Brunswick County, North Carolina, spread over 849.49 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Brunswick County
FEMA counts 84,693 residential structures in Brunswick County overall, 18,204 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Brunswick County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Brunswick County's coastal exposure is covered in the coastal vs. inland flood risk guide, including how storm surge risk differs from river flooding.