How much flood risk does Ellsworth County actually carry?
Ellsworth County lands at the 16.1th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Very Low" territory — among the lowest flood hazard in the country — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about once every 1 years. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Ellsworth County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Ellsworth 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, 7.9% of them do — 14 active policies against 178 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Ellsworth County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.4% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Ellsworth County compares nationally
Ellsworth County sits at rank 2669 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 2712 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Ellsworth County, Kansas covers 715.575 square miles and counts roughly 6,316 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Ellsworth County
Across all of Ellsworth County's 3,921 residential structures, 17 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 Ellsworth County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.