How much flood risk does St. James Parish actually carry?
St. James Parish lands at the 83.4th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 3.8 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 St. James Parish
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside St. James Parish's mapped high-risk flood zone (the Special Flood Hazard Area, or SFHA) are legally required to carry an NFIP flood policy. In practice, 30.6% of them do — 198 active policies against 647 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in St. James Parish, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 11.3% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
St. James Parish against the rest of the country
St. James Parish sits at rank 547 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1876 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). St. James Parish, Louisiana is home to about 19,110 people across 237.861 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in St. James Parish
FEMA counts 9,032 residential structures in St. James Parish overall, 1,023 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed St. James Parish's numbers. Because storm surge plays a real role here, the guide to coastal vs. inland flood hazard is worth reading alongside this page.