Greene County, NC: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Greene County scores at the 39.5th 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.
Greene County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Greene 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, 18.8% of them do — 16 active policies against 85 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.7% of all residential structures in Greene County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Greene County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Greene County ranks 1963 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1788 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Greene County, North Carolina is home to about 20,671 people across 266.736 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Greene County
FEMA counts 8,989 residential structures in Greene County overall, 65 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Greene 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.