Scott County, IA flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Scott County sits at the 88.4th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 3.5 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Scott County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Scott 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, 24.3% of them do — 442 active policies against 1,816 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.9% of all residential structures in Scott County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Scott County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Scott County ranks 381 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 396 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Scott County, Iowa covers 458.101 square miles and counts roughly 175,601 residents.
Your street may differ from Scott County's average
553 of Scott County's 61,163 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Scott 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.