Calhoun County, IL: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Calhoun County scores at the 16.1th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. 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 1 years. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Calhoun County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Calhoun 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, 21.4% of them do — 55 active policies against 257 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 3.1% of all residential structures in Calhoun County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Calhoun County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Calhoun County ranks 2670 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2870 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Calhoun County, Illinois covers 253.829 square miles and counts roughly 4,224 residents.
Checking a specific address in Calhoun County
Across all of Calhoun County's 2,507 residential structures, 77 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Calhoun 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.