Chesterfield County, VA flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Chesterfield County sits at the 89.5th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.4 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Chesterfield County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Chesterfield 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, 26.3% of them do — 242 active policies against 922 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.5% of all residential structures in Chesterfield County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Chesterfield County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Chesterfield County ranks 346 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 197 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 389,793 people live in Chesterfield County, Virginia, spread over 423.51 square miles.
Checking a specific address in Chesterfield County
702 of Chesterfield County's 130,279 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Chesterfield 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.