Washington County, MD flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Washington County sits at the 73.1th 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 2.1 times a year. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Washington County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Washington 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, 43.7% of them do — 203 active policies against 465 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.5% of all residential structures in Washington County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Washington County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Washington County ranks 884 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 447 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Washington County, Maryland covers 457.789 square miles and counts roughly 157,228 residents.
Your street may differ from Washington County's average
Across all of Washington County's 52,533 residential structures, 280 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Washington 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.