Cooke County, TX: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Cooke County scores at the 66.8th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Low" — below the national norm for flood hazard. 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 1.6 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Cooke 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, 23.1% of them do — 117 active policies against 506 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1% of all residential structures in Cooke County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Cooke County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Cooke County ranks 1090 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1110 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Cooke County, Texas covers 874.826 square miles and counts roughly 44,258 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Cooke County
Across all of Cooke County's 16,396 residential structures, 161 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Cooke 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.