How much flood risk does Madison County actually carry?
Madison County lands at the 77.1th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about once every 1 years. 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
Madison County is one of the counties where FEMA's own denominator for mandated flood-zone structures is missing, so no compliance rate is shown rather than a guessed one — the data quality guide covers how common this is. Across all residential structures in Madison County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 1.1% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Madison County against the rest of the country
Madison County sits at rank 753 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 814 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Madison County, New York covers 654.854 square miles and counts roughly 67,072 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Madison County
FEMA counts 27,688 residential structures in Madison County overall, 297 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Madison County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Madison County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.