Kent County, RI flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Kent County sits at the 80.9th 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 1.4 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
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, 48.3% of them do — 756 active policies against 1,565 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 2.2% 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 628 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 403 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Kent County, Rhode Island covers 168.568 square miles and counts roughly 172,450 residents.
Your street may differ from Kent County's average
1,165 of Kent County's 53,509 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Kent 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.