Community Rating System

Get email icon To receive CRS e-mail updates

The National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements.

As a result, flood insurance premium rates are discounted to reflect the reduced flood risk resulting from the community actions meeting the three goals of the CRS:

  1. Reduce flood losses;
  2. Facilitate accurate insurance rating; and
  3. Promote the awareness of flood insurance.

For CRS participating communities, flood insurance premium rates are discounted in increments of 5%; i.e., a Class 1 community would receive a 45% premium discount, while a Class 9 community would receive a 5% discount (a Class 10 is not participating in the CRS and receives no discount). The CRS classes for local communities are based on 18 creditable activities, organized under four categories:

  1. Public Information,
  2. Mapping and Regulations,
  3. Flood Damage Reduction, and
  4. Flood Preparedness.

The CRS Resource Center is now available.

Credit points earned, classification awarded, and premium reductions given for communities in the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System.
  Premium Reduction
Credit Points Class SFHA* Non-SFHA**
4,500+ 1 45% 10%
4,000 – 4,499 2 40% 10%
3,500 – 3,999 3 35% 10%
3,000 – 3,499 4 30% 10%
2,500 – 2,999 5 25% 10%
2,000 – 2,499 6 20% 10%
1,500 – 1,999 7 15% 5%
1,000 – 1,499 8 10% 5%
500 – 999 9 5% 5%
0 – 499 10 0 0
*Special Flood Hazard Area
**Preferred Risk Policies are available only in B, C, and X Zones for properties that are shown to have a minimal risk of flood damage. The Preferred Risk Policy does not receive premium rate credits under the CRS because it already has a lower premium than other policies. The CRS credit for AR and A99 zones are based on non-SFHAs (B, C, and X). Credits are: classes 1-6, 10% and classes 7-9, 5%. Premium reductions are subject to change.

CRS Communities and their Classes (PDF 197KB, TXT 94 KB)
These pages are from the most recent Flood Insurance Agent's Manual containing current and historical listings of all CRS communities, their class, and insurance discount.

NFIP/CRS Update Winter 2007-2008
A publication to provide local officials and others interested in the Community Rating System with news they can use.

Download Plug-in

Some of the links on this page require a plug-in to view them. Links to the plug-ins are available below.

Click Here to Download Adobe Acrobat Reader Adobe Acrobat (PDF)

Last Modified: Tuesday, 03-Jun-2008 14:36:48 EDT