Ellis County, TX: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Ellis County scores at the 83.5th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. 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 2 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 Ellis 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, 29.2% of them do — 257 active policies against 881 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.8% of all residential structures in Ellis County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Ellis County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Ellis County ranks 542 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 309 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Ellis County, Texas is home to about 232,387 people across 935.801 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Ellis County
Across all of Ellis County's 60,605 residential structures, 469 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Ellis 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.