How much flood risk does Ward County actually carry?
Ward County lands at the 41.9th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Low" territory — below the national norm for flood hazard — 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. 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
Ward 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 Ward County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 4.5% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Ward County against the rest of the country
Ward County sits at rank 1888 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 803 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Ward County, North Dakota is home to about 68,427 people across 2,013.029 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Ward County
1,030 of Ward County's 23,080 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Ward County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Ward County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.