How much flood risk does Herkimer County actually carry?
Herkimer County lands at the 78.5th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 3.5 times a year. 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 Herkimer County
Herkimer County is one of the counties where FEMA's own denominator for mandated flood-zone structures is missing, so no compliance rate is shown rather than a guessed one — the data quality guide covers how common this is. Across all residential structures in Herkimer County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 1.1% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Herkimer County compares nationally
Herkimer County sits at rank 705 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 896 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 59,585 people live in Herkimer County, New York, spread over 1,410.587 square miles.
Checking a specific address in Herkimer County
FEMA counts 28,735 residential structures in Herkimer County overall, 326 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Herkimer County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Herkimer County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.