Worcester County, MD flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Worcester County sits at the 88th national percentile, well above the national norm for flood hazard; driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 3.7 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 Worcester County
FEMA's own figures for Worcester County report more NFIP policies in the mapped flood zone than FEMA's own count of residential structures there, which produces a compliance rate over 100% — a data problem on FEMA's side, not evidence that everyone here is over-insured. See the data quality guide for how widespread this is. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 23.9% of all residential structures in Worcester County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Worcester County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Worcester County ranks 398 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 952 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Worcester County, Maryland covers 468.299 square miles and counts roughly 54,337 residents.
Checking a specific address in Worcester County
Across all of Worcester County's 32,986 residential structures, 7,870 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Worcester County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Worcester County's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.