Ann Arbor, MI
Ann Arbor wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Ann Arbor at the 15th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 30,817 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ann Arbor's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 17th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Ann Arbor's buildings (81.9% of 30,817) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 30,817 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Ann Arbor against the rest of the country
Compare Ann Arbor's two percentiles: 51st within Michigan, only 15th nationally — a gap of 36 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ann Arbor ranks 26,853 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 369 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 365 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Ann Arbor's low rating (15th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Ann Arbor's 81.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Ann Arbor's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ann Arbor's 26,853-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ann Arbor's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.