Muscatine County, IA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Muscatine County scores at the 62.6th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Low" — below the national norm for flood hazard. 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 2.5 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Muscatine County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Muscatine 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, 20.8% of them do — 99 active policies against 476 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.8% of all residential structures in Muscatine County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Muscatine County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Muscatine County ranks 1228 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1147 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Muscatine County, Iowa is home to about 42,132 people across 437.44 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Muscatine County's average
Across all of Muscatine County's 17,291 residential structures, 130 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Muscatine 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.