How much flood risk does Burke County actually carry?
Burke County lands at the 79.3th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2 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.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Burke 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, 40% of them do — 70 active policies against 175 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Burke County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.3% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Burke County against the rest of the country
Burke County sits at rank 680 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 675 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 88,545 people live in Burke County, North Carolina, spread over 506.237 square miles.
Checking a specific address in Burke County
Across all of Burke County's 36,119 residential structures, 112 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Burke 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.