Dallas County, IA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Dallas County scores at the 60.4th 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 4.3 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Dallas County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Dallas 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, 8.8% of them do — 11 active policies against 125 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Dallas County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Dallas County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Dallas County ranks 1302 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 550 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Dallas County, Iowa covers 588.23 square miles and counts roughly 115,343 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Dallas County
Across all of Dallas County's 34,099 residential structures, 76 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Dallas 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.