Hampshire County, MA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Hampshire County scores at the 79.4th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. 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 1.9 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Hampshire 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, 0.8% of all residential structures in Hampshire County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Hampshire County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Hampshire County ranks 677 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 427 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Hampshire County, Massachusetts is home to about 165,399 people across 527.236 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Hampshire County
FEMA counts 42,141 residential structures in Hampshire County overall, 339 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Hampshire County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Hampshire 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.