In a new report the Environment Agency calculated that 5.2 million of the homes in England are built on a flood plain, near a river or where there is a risk of surface water flooding during heavy rainfall.
Of those properties, 490,000 are at "significant risk" of flooding, which means they have a greater than one in 75 chance of being flooded in any year.
With the situation set to worsen because of climate change, it warns that 840,000 homes will be classed as at "significant risk of flooding" by 2035.
Thousands of health centres and doctors' surgeries, schools and miles of railways and roads are also liable to flooding, according to the agency's Flooding In England report.
The risk of flooding is set to increase due to rising sea levels, more rapid coastal erosion and increasingly severe and frequent rainstorms.
At present, the worst affected local authority is Boston in Lincolnshire where 23,700 properties are at high risk. In the South East of England some 111,356 are seriously threatened with flooding.
To keep a basic level of protection, the Environment Agency suggested it will be necessary to invest £20 billion over the next 25 years in flood defences.
Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chairman of the Environment Agency, said investment was "crucial" to prevent more properties becoming at risk.
"The latest climate change data shows that the risk of flooding and coastal erosion will continue to increase in the future due to rising sea levels and more frequent and heavy storms," he said.
"There are important decisions for us all to take about how to manage these risks to protect people, communities, businesses and the economy in future."
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