Kent County, MD flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Kent County sits at the 60th national percentile, below the national norm for flood hazard; driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 3.7 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Kent County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Kent 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, 60.6% of them do — 306 active policies against 505 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 4.5% of all residential structures in Kent County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Kent County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Kent County ranks 1317 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1854 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 19,557 people live in Kent County, Maryland, spread over 276.939 square miles.
Checking a specific address in Kent County
Across all of Kent County's 10,207 residential structures, 460 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Kent County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Kent County's coastal exposure is covered in the coastal vs. inland flood risk guide, including how storm surge risk differs from river flooding.