Flood insurance in Galveston County, Texas
What existing NFIP policyholders here actually pay, how that compares with FEMA's full-risk price, the flood risk, the claims history, and how to pay less — every figure from public federal data, sourced and dated.
Policies as of July 31, 202660,942 policy units in force
This is what existing single-family policies cost — not a quote. Your own premium depends on your building, coverage and elevation.
Check your address on FEMA's flood map →Your flood zone is set at your exact address and drives your price and whether coverage is required. Look it up first, then read your zone's row in "What does it cost in my flood zone?" below.
How much flood risk is here?
FEMA's National Risk Index rates Galveston County's coastal flood risk Relatively High and inland flood risk Relatively High, from expected annual loss.
- Coastal flood riskRelatively High
- Coastal modeled annual loss (county)$5,416,846/yr (Relatively High, 79th national percentile)
- Inland flood riskRelatively High
- Inland modeled annual loss (county)$62,969,859/yr (Relatively High, 64th national percentile)
Modeled annual loss is FEMA's estimate for the whole county (all buildings), not any one home's expected loss or premium, and not a flood probability.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective NRI 2023 release; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Am I required to carry it?
About 57.7% of the NFIP policy units in this dataset for Galveston County are in mapped high-risk (A/V) zones — not 57.7% of all buildings. In a Special Flood Hazard Area a federally backed mortgage legally requires flood insurance.
- Zone AE26,695 policy units
- Zone X25,235 policy units
- Zone VE7,325 policy units
- Zone AO391 policy units
- Zone B371 policy units
- Zone C189 policy units
- Zone A169 policy units
- Zone V19109 policy units
- Other or unclassified zones458 policy units
Zone mix by policy units (summed policyCount). Federal rule: a lender must require flood insurance on a building in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed loan (42 U.S.C. §4012a). This is the mix of existing policies, not of all buildings, and does not establish any one property's obligation.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How much does it cost here?
Among existing single-family primary-residence NFIP policies in Galveston County, the median annual cost is $1,101, with the middle half between $965 and $1,291 (40,345 policies). This is what current policyholders pay — a new policy on a different building can differ.
Each policy's annual cost (premium plus fees), single-family primary residences. The bar is the middle half (p25–p75); the orange line is FEMA's full-risk price.
Coverage in force: $14,058,563,000 of building and $4,314,223,000 of contents coverage across all Galveston County policies.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
What does it cost in my flood zone?
Median annual cost of existing single-family policies by rated flood zone in Galveston County — so you can read the row for your own zone (it's on your lender's determination).
| Flood zone | Median annual cost | Policies |
|---|---|---|
| Zone X | $1,081 | 21,831 |
| Zone AE | $1,234 | 15,580 |
| Zone VE | $1,788 | 1,960 |
| Zone B | $1,144 | 296 |
| Zone C | $1,177 | 166 |
| Zone A | $1,070 | 139 |
| Zone A14 | $1,388 | 72 |
Zones with fewer than 50 priced single-family policies are omitted. Your own premium still depends on elevation and coverage.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Find your ZIP in this county
Type your ZIP to see its own NFIP policy count and median cost within Galveston County. Biggest ZIPs are listed below.
Enter a 5-digit ZIP above.
| ZIP | Median annual cost | Policy units |
|---|---|---|
| 77573 | $1,066 | 13,161 |
| 77554 | $1,482 | 7,810 |
| 77539 | $1,199 | 7,300 |
| 77550 | $1,326 | 7,158 |
| 77551 | $1,787 | 5,289 |
| 77546 | $971 | 4,979 |
| 77650 | $1,365 | 3,147 |
| 77563 | $1,462 | 2,071 |
Median shown only for ZIPs with 25+ priced single-family policies; smaller ZIPs show count only.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How do current premiums compare with FEMA's full-risk price?
40.5% of 40,345 single-family policies pay less than FEMA's own full-risk price; the median full-risk premium is $1,250 versus the $1,101 actually charged.
- Median charged now$1,101
- Median full-risk price$1,250
- Pay below full risk40.5% of 40,345
Years to the full-risk price: under the statutory cap, premiums for most primary residences rise at most 18% a year (HFIAA cap, FEMA Risk Rating 2.0). At that maximum rate a policy at today's median ($1,101) would take at least about 1 annual renewals to reach the median full-risk price ($1,250). This is the cap on how fast a bill can climb, not a forecast of any one policy; statutory surcharges and fees are outside the cap.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Can I pay less than the sticker price?
5 of Galveston County's 12 NFIP communities carry a Community Rating System discount that cuts every eligible policy's premium — up to 25% inside the high-risk zone (Galveston, City Of).
| Community | CRS class | High-risk discount | Other-area discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galveston, City Of | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Jamaica Beach, City Of | 7 | 15% | 5% |
| Dickinson, City Of | 7 | 15% | 5% |
| Tiki Island, Village Of | 7 | 15% | 5% |
| Hitchcock, City Of | 8 | 10% | 5% |
| Santa Fe, City Of | — | No discount | No discount |
| Bayou Vista, City Of | — | No discount | No discount |
| Clear Lake Shores, City Of | — | No discount | No discount |
| Galveston County | — | No discount | No discount |
| Kemah, City Of | 10 | No discount | No discount |
| La Marque, City Of | — | No discount | No discount |
| Texas City, City Of | — | No discount | No discount |
The Community Rating System cuts NFIP premiums for every eligible policy in a community that does extra flood work. The discount shown is the community's rate; what share of its policies currently receive it is not in this data. Confirm with your agent.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective October 22, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
What do floods actually pay out here?
Between 1978 and 2026, Galveston County had 60,620 paid NFIP flood claims totalling $2,446,046,168.
Orange bars are the three costliest years: 2008 ($1,316,981,049), 2017 ($834,083,414), 1979 ($80,702,799). Net building + contents payments by year of loss. Claims are matched by the claims dataset's county code, which may not exactly match a policy's property county.
That is 60,620 paid claims since 1978 against 60,942 policies in force today — a cumulative tally spanning ~49 years over a present-day snapshot, not an annual claim rate or a flood probability.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective 1978–2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How often do the same homes flood here?
FEMA has recorded 3,503 properties in Galveston County that flooded more than once and drew federal disaster aid for repeat flood losses, including 23 rated severe repetitive-loss.
- Repeat-loss properties3,503
- Severe repetitive-loss23
FEMA-designated repetitive-loss (RL) and severe repetitive-loss (SRL) properties — individual homes with more than one flood loss over time, aggregated to the county and distinct from the annual NFIP claim counts above. A high count means the same homes flood again and again here. These drew FEMA Individual Assistance (for uninsured losses), so read it as a chronic-flooding signal, not an insured-claims total.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective 2026-10-24; retrieved 2026-10-24. FEMA repetitive-loss flood-property records. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How Galveston County compares across the state
Every county in the state shaded by its FEMA flood-risk rating — Galveston County is outlined, so you can see whether it runs hotter or cooler than its neighbours.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective NRI 2023 release; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How common is flood insurance here?
Galveston County has about 38.2 NFIP flood policies for every 100 homes (60,942 policy units vs 159,379 housing units).
- NFIP policy units60,942
- Housing units159,379
- Policies per 100 homes38.2
A coverage-commonness proxy: policy units include some multi-unit and non-residential policies and exclude private flood insurance, so read it as how widespread NFIP coverage is here, not an exact share of households.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP + U.S. Census ACS 5-year 2023 (B25001), retrieved October 22, 2026.How often is this county a flood disaster?
Galveston County has had 22 distinct federal flood, hurricane or tropical-storm disaster declarations. The most recent:
- 2024 — Hurricane: Hurricane Beryl
- 2020 — Hurricane: Hurricane Laura
- 2020 — Hurricane: Tropical Storms Marco And Laura
- 2020 — Hurricane: Hurricane Hanna
- 2017 — Hurricane: Hurricane Harvey
- 2015 — Severe Storm: Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, And Flooding
Distinct storms by calendar year (one storm's emergency and major-disaster declarations are counted once), not individual declaration records.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective declarations through 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
More data: FEMA disaster aid & reconciliation
Did the government pay homeowners after floods?
FEMA approved $246,556,891 in Individual & Households housing help to Galveston County homeowners across 8 disasters, on 110,833 valid registrations.
FEMA Individual Assistance is disaster aid, usually capped and partial — separate from NFIP insurance and not a substitute for a policy.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective owner registrations by disaster; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Reconciliation & data completeness
Our counts are checked against FEMA's official figure and the API's own totals.
In-force count: 60,942 policy units (from 56,842 API records; condo-association records carry more than one unit). FEMA official reconciliation count pending for this county. Count reconciliation (not a snapshot proof): policies: 56842/56842 fetched; claims: 60620/60620 fetched.
What this data cannot tell you
- Your own premium — it depends on elevation, coverage and deductible. We show where existing policies fall.
- Private (non-NFIP) flood insurance prices.
- Your address's exact flood zone — use FEMA's Flood Map Service Center.
- Why premiums are rising — we show the gap to full-risk, not the cause.
- A year-over-year premium trend — the in-force snapshot holds only current-term policies, so a like-for-like multi-year index isn't possible from this data. A per-effective-year median is shown only where several years of policies exist.
The federal datasets behind this page
Every figure here comes from a public U.S. federal dataset — no estimates, no private data. This page joins 8 of them for Galveston County, each linked to its official source. Data last pulled October 22, 2026.
- FEMA OpenFEMA — NFIP Policies
- FEMA OpenFEMA — NFIP Claims
- FEMA — National Risk Index (flood)
- FEMA OpenFEMA — NFIP Community Status Book (CRS)
- FEMA OpenFEMA — Disaster Declarations Summaries
- FEMA OpenFEMA — Housing Assistance (Owners)
- U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 5-year B25001 (housing units)
- FEMA OpenFEMA — Repetitive-Loss Flood Properties
Where would your premium fall?
Type your annual flood premium to see where it sits among Galveston County's existing single-family policies. This is a comparison, not a quote.
Enter an amount above.