How much flood risk does Steele County actually carry?
Steele County lands at the 2.3th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Very Low" territory — among the lowest flood hazard in the country — with the hazard 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 Steele County
Steele County is one of the counties where FEMA's own denominator for mandated flood-zone structures is missing, so no compliance rate is shown rather than a guessed one — the data quality guide covers how common this is. Across all residential structures in Steele County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.1% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Steele County compares nationally
Steele County sits at rank 3078 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 3061 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Steele County, North Dakota covers 712.143 square miles and counts roughly 1,767 residents.
Your street may differ from Steele County's average
FEMA counts 1,194 residential structures in Steele County overall, 1 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 Steele County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Steele County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.