No, federal law does not require flood insurance in Zone X. The purchase requirement applies to buildings in a Special Flood Hazard Area (Zones A and V) whose mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, a federal agency, or is sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Zone X is outside it, though any lender can still require a policy as a condition of a loan. But Zone X is not a no-flood zone: of the 2,725,989 claims in FEMA’s published NFIP claims file (losses from 1978 on), 687,407 — 25.2%, about one in four — were on buildings rated in Zone X or its older-map equivalents, Zones B and C.

Not sure which zone you’re in? Look up your address — the result tells you whether you’re in Zone X and whether it’s the moderate-risk (shaded) or minimal-risk (unshaded) kind.

What Zone X Means

Zone X is FEMA’s label for areas outside the 1%-annual-chance (“100-year”) floodplain. It comes in two kinds that share one letter:

• Shaded Zone X — moderate risk, generally between the 1% and 0.2% (“500-year”) floodplain limits. Maps drawn before 1986 called this Zone B.
• Unshaded Zone X — minimal risk, outside the 0.2% floodplain. Older maps called this Zone C.

FEMA’s claims documentation describes Zones B and C as moderate and minimal flood risk “from primary water source,” with “pockets of areas subject to drainage problems.” More on the difference: Zone X Shaded vs Unshaded and What is a 500-year floodplain?

One in Four Flood Claims Comes From Zone X

We loaded every record in FEMA’s public NFIP claims file and grouped them by the flood zone each policy was rated in. Here is how the 2,725,989 claims split:

Zone X, B and C together: 687,407 claims, 25.2%, with $20.67 billion in building and contents payments on them (nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation). The claims file records Zone X without saying whether it was shaded or unshaded, so the Zone X row mixes both kinds.

Two cautions about reading this table. First, it counts claims, not risk per house. The claims file says nothing about how many insured buildings sit in each zone, and many Zone X homes carry no flood policy at all, so the table can’t give you the odds that a particular Zone X house floods. What it does show is that Zone X flooding is not rare in absolute terms. Second, the zone is the one the policy was rated in when the claim happened. Flood maps get redrawn, so some of these buildings are in a different zone today.

When Zone X Floods, Claims Are Smaller but Still Large

Among claims that paid anything, the average payment for a Zone X/B/C claim was $40,640, against $45,023 in the A zones. The median, a better guide to a typical claim, is $12,161 for Zone X/B/C and $15,125 for A zones, about a fifth lower. Zone X claims run smaller, but a Zone X flood is still not a small-change event. (Nominal dollars, and the two groups span different mixes of years.)

A few other differences show up in the file:

• More often rain. FEMA codes a cause of damage on almost every claim. For Zone X/B/C claims, “accumulation of rainfall or snowmelt” is the cause on 53.4%, against 41.6% in A zones. River and lake overflow (18.1%) and tidal overflow (15.5%) are smaller shares than in A zones (22.4% and 26.2%). Rainfall is the most common code in both groups. It is just a larger share in Zone X, which fits zones drawn away from mapped rivers and coastlines.
• Contents are a bigger slice. Contents payments are 23.3% of all dollars paid on Zone X/B/C claims, versus 16.1% in A zones. Contents (furniture, appliances, clothing) make up a larger part of what was paid on Zone X claims. Worth remembering, since building and contents coverage are bought separately.

Not every claim pays: 74.0% of Zone X/B/C claims show a building or contents payment, against 79.5% in A zones.

The Zone X Share Moves Year to Year

The Zone X/B/C share of claims is anything but steady. It has ranged from about one in ten claims to nearly half in recent years. 2025 and 2026 are left out: 2026 is a partial year, and 2025’s count (13,143 claims) may still grow.

Much of that swing comes from where the year’s claims are. The two lowest years, 2022 and 2024, were dominated by Florida, which filed 83.5% and 78.8% of all claims those years. Florida’s claims were mostly in A and V zones: only 8.8% and 4.6% were Zone X/B/C. Outside Florida, the Zone X/B/C share in those same years was 26.4% and 30.8%.

The Houston area shows the scale. In 2017, the year of Hurricane Harvey, Harris County, Texas alone had 25,080 Zone X/B/C claims, 41% of the 61,043 nationwide that year and half of the county’s own 49,788 claims. Across all years, Harris County has more Zone X/B/C claims than any other county in the file: 91,764 of its 170,854, or 53.7%. Farther east along the Gulf, Jefferson County (Beaumont) has the higher share: 75.8% of its 22,715 claims. Statewide, 49.0% of Texas’s 394,204 claims are Zone X/B/C, the highest share of any state with more than 20,000 claims. In Louisiana, the share is 29.1% in Jefferson Parish and 25.0% in Orleans Parish.

See which places file the most claims overall on our flood claims rankings, or open your own county page from the state list.

What a Zone X Policy Costs and Covers

Cost. Since FEMA’s current pricing approach took effect (new policies from October 1, 2021; all renewals from April 1, 2022), NFIP premiums are set from the individual property’s flood risk — FEMA says the pricing “does not use flood zones to determine flood risk.” Being in Zone X no longer guarantees a particular low rate; the price depends on the individual building. The only way to know your price is a quote from an agent. FEMA also notes that existing law keeps most rates from rising more than 18% a year. (FEMA)

Coverage limits. An NFIP policy on a single-family home covers up to $250,000 for the building and up to $100,000 for contents (44 CFR 61.6). Private flood insurers also write policies, sometimes with higher limits.

Timing. A new NFIP policy generally takes 30 days to take effect, with narrow exceptions such as a policy bought in connection with a mortgage closing. And a flood already in progress when you buy isn’t covered, so buying when the forecast turns bad is too late. (FloodSmart)

Homeowners insurance usually doesn’t fill the gap. Most homeowners policies don’t cover flood damage, so check yours. Without flood coverage, most of the cost of repairs after a Zone X flood falls on you.

So, Should You Buy It?

Federal law doesn’t require it (your lender might), and the claims file can’t tell you your personal odds. What it shows is that Zone X floods make up a quarter of all NFIP claims, that they cost a similar order of money to A-zone floods when they happen, and that they are more often coded as rainfall flooding than A-zone claims are. A few questions worth asking yourself:

• Are you in shaded Zone X? FEMA mapped a moderate flood hazard there, often right beside the 100-year floodplain.
• Does your county have a history of rainfall flooding? Find your county from the state list; its page shows claims and storm events.
• Do you have a basement, or a home that sits lower than the street?
• Could you pay for a five-figure repair out of pocket?

If the answers lean toward risk, get a quote. Keep reading: What is the NFIP?, Do I need flood insurance?, and what flood insurance costs.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims (all records, retrieved October 2026), grouped by rated flood zone. Zone B is counted with shaded X and Zone C with unshaded X, matching FEMA’s definitions. Dollar figures are nominal. Download our county and state summaries on the data page.

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