Bates City, MO
Bates City, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Bates City sits at the 44th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 184 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bates City at the 44th percentile, close to its 44th-percentile risk score.
Where Bates City's buildings actually sit
Only 46.2% of Bates City's 184 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 53.8% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Bates City ranks
Bates City's 44th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 20th ranking inside Missouri does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 23 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bates City ranks 17,803 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,467 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 848 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bates City's elevated rating (44th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 53.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Bates City gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 184 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bates City. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bates City, see the exposure-zones guide.