Pennington County, MN: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Pennington County scores at the 67.8th 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 once every 2 years. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Pennington County
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Pennington 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 Pennington County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Pennington County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Pennington County ranks 1058 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2179 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 13,652 people live in Pennington County, Minnesota, spread over 616.52 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Pennington County
7 of Pennington County's 8,329 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Pennington County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Pennington 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.