Fayette County, IL: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Fayette County scores at the 49.5th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Low" — below the national norm for flood hazard. 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.
Fayette County's flood-insurance compliance gap
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Fayette County'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, 0% of all residential structures in Fayette County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Fayette County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Fayette County ranks 1649 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1762 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 21,157 people live in Fayette County, Illinois, spread over 716.451 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Fayette County
2 of Fayette County's 10,152 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Fayette County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Fayette County'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.