How much flood risk does Cherokee County actually carry?
Cherokee County lands at the 59.2th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Low" territory — below the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.5 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 Cherokee 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, 13.8% of them do — 86 active policies against 625 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Cherokee 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.
Where Cherokee County ranks
Cherokee County sits at rank 1341 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 972 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Cherokee County, Texas is home to about 53,223 people across 1,052.954 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Cherokee County
Across all of Cherokee County's 20,052 residential structures, 107 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 Cherokee 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.