Jefferson County, AR flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Jefferson County sits at the 78.2th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2.4 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.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
11.7% of the homes FEMA requires to carry flood insurance in Jefferson County — those inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area — actually have a policy in force: 236 policies against 2,024 mandated structures, which means a meaningful share of legally-required coverage simply isn't there. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.9% of all residential structures in Jefferson County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Jefferson County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Jefferson County ranks 714 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 859 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Jefferson County, Arkansas is home to about 63,672 people across 872.346 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Jefferson County
Across all of Jefferson County's 28,908 residential structures, 273 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Jefferson County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. If you're unsure why any of this insurance requirement exists at all, the SFHA explainer covers it from first principles.