How much flood risk does Emmet County actually carry?
Emmet County lands at the 20.4th 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 2.7 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Emmet County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Emmet County is one of the counties where FEMA's own denominator for mandated flood-zone structures is missing, so no compliance rate is shown rather than a guessed one — the data quality guide covers how common this is. Across all residential structures in Emmet County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.2% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Emmet County against the rest of the country
Emmet County sits at rank 2545 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 2476 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Emmet County, Iowa is home to about 9,162 people across 395.89 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Emmet County
12 of Emmet County's 7,170 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Emmet County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Emmet County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.