How much flood risk does Wythe County actually carry?
Wythe County lands at the 50.3th 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 1.6 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Wythe 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, 13.8% of them do — 80 active policies against 579 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Wythe County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.7% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Wythe County compares nationally
Wythe County sits at rank 1625 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1505 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Wythe County, Virginia covers 461.952 square miles and counts roughly 28,100 residents.
Checking a specific address in Wythe County
Across all of Wythe County's 12,990 residential structures, 94 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Wythe County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.