Sharp County, AR: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Sharp County scores at the 66.3th 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 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.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Sharp 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, 9% of them do — 47 active policies against 524 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.5% of all residential structures in Sharp County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Sharp County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Sharp County ranks 1108 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1927 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Sharp County, Arkansas is home to about 18,130 people across 604.637 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Sharp County
Across all of Sharp County's 10,748 residential structures, 57 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Sharp 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.