Spartanburg County, SC: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Spartanburg County scores at the 92.7th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. 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 1.8 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Spartanburg 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, 34.2% of them do — 65 active policies against 190 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Spartanburg County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Spartanburg County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Spartanburg County ranks 246 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 209 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Spartanburg County, South Carolina covers 808.411 square miles and counts roughly 369,256 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Spartanburg County
Across all of Spartanburg County's 120,921 residential structures, 224 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Spartanburg 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.