Is Carbon County, PA in a flood zone?
FEMA's National Risk Index puts Carbon County's flood hazard at the 67.5th percentile nationally — below the national norm for flood hazard — 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. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Carbon County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Carbon 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, 15.3% of them do — 118 active policies against 770 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Carbon County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.5% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Carbon County against the rest of the country
Carbon County sits at rank 1066 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 834 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Carbon County, Pennsylvania is home to about 65,743 people across 381.356 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Carbon County
152 of Carbon County's 32,691 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 Carbon 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.