Is Greenwood County, SC in a flood zone?
FEMA's National Risk Index puts Greenwood County's flood hazard at the 66.2th percentile nationally — below the national norm for flood 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.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Greenwood 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, 30% of them do — 39 active policies against 130 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Greenwood 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.
How Greenwood County compares nationally
Greenwood County sits at rank 1109 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 789 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 70,041 people live in Greenwood County, South Carolina, spread over 455.606 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Greenwood County
Across all of Greenwood County's 30,986 residential structures, 74 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 Greenwood 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.