How much flood risk does Perry County actually carry?
Perry County lands at the 86.3th 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 2.3 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.
Perry County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Perry 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, 15.7% of them do — 224 active policies against 1,431 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Perry County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 2% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Where Perry County ranks
Perry County sits at rank 455 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1548 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Perry County, Kentucky covers 339.724 square miles and counts roughly 26,739 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Perry County
Across all of Perry County's 12,078 residential structures, 235 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Perry County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.