Flood Zone X

What Zone X means

FEMA assigns Zone X to areas outside the Special Flood Hazard Area. Shaded Zone X (formerly Zone B) marks moderate flood hazard: areas between the 1-percent and 0.2-percent-annual-chance flood limits, areas of 1-percent-annual-chance flooding with average depths of less than one foot or drainage areas under one square mile, and areas protected from the base flood by accredited levees. Unshaded Zone X (formerly Zone C) marks areas of minimal flood hazard, above the 0.2-percent-annual-chance flood level.

Because Zone X is outside the SFHA, the federal mandatory purchase requirement does not apply. Flood insurance remains available for buildings in Zone X in participating communities, and a lender may still require coverage as a condition of a specific loan.

The federal mandatory purchase rule

Zone X lies outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, so the federal mandatory purchase requirement does not apply to it. A lender may still require flood coverage as a condition of a specific loan, and NFIP policies remain available for buildings in this zone in participating communities.

Zones and premiums

Under the NFIP's current pricing methodology (Risk Rating 2.0), a property's flood zone is no longer the primary variable used to set its premium; zones continue to determine whether the mandatory purchase requirement applies. This page describes zone mechanics only and carries no premium statistics.

Verifying a property's zone

Zone boundaries are set by FEMA's flood maps and can change as maps are revised. The authoritative record for any address is FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. For the NFIP policy and claims statistics of a specific ZIP code, use the ZIP lookup tool on this site.