How much flood risk does Hidalgo County actually carry?
Hidalgo County lands at the 96.4th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2.3 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 Hidalgo County
Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 3.7% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Where Hidalgo County ranks
Hidalgo County sits at rank 120 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 64 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Hidalgo County, Texas is home to about 914,820 people across 1,571.217 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Hidalgo County's average
9,038 of Hidalgo County's 241,790 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Hidalgo County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Hidalgo County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.