Polk County, MN flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Polk County sits at the 69.8th national percentile, below the national norm for flood hazard; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.7 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Polk County
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Polk 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, 0.5% of all residential structures in Polk County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Polk County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Polk County ranks 993 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1432 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Polk County, Minnesota is home to about 30,413 people across 1,970.996 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Polk County
102 of Polk County's 19,224 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Polk County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Polk 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.