Charlton County, GA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Charlton County scores at the 18.4th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. The hazard here is split between inland river flooding (about once every 4 years) and coastal storm surge (about once every 83 years). That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Charlton County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Charlton 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, 13% of them do — 13 active policies against 100 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.6% of all residential structures in Charlton County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Charlton County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Charlton County ranks 2603 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2218 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Charlton County, Georgia covers 780.093 square miles and counts roughly 13,021 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Charlton County
Across all of Charlton County's 4,572 residential structures, 28 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Charlton County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Charlton County's coastal exposure is covered in the coastal vs. inland flood risk guide, including how storm surge risk differs from river flooding.