Fairfax city, VA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Fairfax city scores at the 13.5th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. 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 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.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Fairfax city
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Fairfax city's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1.9% of all residential structures in Fairfax city carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Fairfax city ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Fairfax city ranks 2746 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1563 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Fairfax city, Virginia covers 6.241 square miles and counts roughly 26,340 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Fairfax city
Across all of Fairfax city's 6,746 residential structures, 130 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Fairfax city's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Fairfax city's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.