McDonough County, IL: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, McDonough County scores at the 21.1th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. 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 2.1 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for McDonough County's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.1% of all residential structures in McDonough County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where McDonough County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, McDonough County ranks 2521 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1552 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. McDonough County, Illinois is home to about 26,662 people across 589.305 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in McDonough County
FEMA counts 9,845 residential structures in McDonough County overall, 8 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where McDonough County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. McDonough County's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.