How much flood risk does Dorchester County actually carry?
Dorchester County lands at the 91.2th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 3.6 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 Dorchester 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, 48.6% of them do — 1,153 active policies against 2,374 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Dorchester County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 8.9% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Dorchester County compares nationally
Dorchester County sits at rank 298 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1364 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Dorchester County, Maryland is home to about 33,138 people across 540.765 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Dorchester County's average
Across all of Dorchester County's 15,615 residential structures, 1,382 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 Dorchester County's numbers. Because storm surge plays a real role here, the guide to coastal vs. inland flood hazard is worth reading alongside this page.