How much flood risk does Jackson County actually carry?
Jackson County lands at the 57.6th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Low" territory — below 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 4 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.
Jackson County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Jackson 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, 10.1% of them do — 113 active policies against 1,118 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Jackson County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.8% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Jackson County compares nationally
Jackson County sits at rank 1395 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1044 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 47,420 people live in Jackson County, Indiana, spread over 509.978 square miles.
Your street may differ from Jackson County's average
Across all of Jackson County's 18,262 residential structures, 147 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 Jackson 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.