Johnson County, KY: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Johnson County scores at the 85.2th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. The hazard here is driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.5 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Johnson County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Johnson 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, 13.6% of them do — 193 active policies against 1,423 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 2.3% of all residential structures in Johnson County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Johnson County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Johnson County ranks 488 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1716 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 22,098 people live in Johnson County, Kentucky, spread over 261.966 square miles.
Your street may differ from Johnson County's average
Across all of Johnson County's 9,151 residential structures, 211 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Johnson 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.