How much flood risk does Horry County actually carry?
Horry County lands at the 92th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard split between inland river flooding (about 2 times a year) and coastal storm surge (about 3.6 times a year). County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Horry County
Horry 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 Horry County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 14.6% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Where Horry County ranks
Horry County sits at rank 268 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 184 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Horry County, South Carolina covers 1,133.151 square miles and counts roughly 413,391 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Horry County
Across all of Horry County's 139,337 residential structures, 20,388 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 Horry County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Horry County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.