Stearns County, MN flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Stearns County sits at the 90.9th 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 once every 1 years. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Stearns County
Out of 784 homes FEMA counts inside Stearns County's mapped flood zone, 117 carry the flood policy federal law requires there — 14.9% compliance, short of full coverage. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Stearns County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Stearns County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Stearns County ranks 305 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 428 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 163,997 people live in Stearns County, Minnesota, spread over 1,342.883 square miles.
Checking a specific address in Stearns County
Across all of Stearns County's 67,748 residential structures, 153 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Stearns 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.