Bismarck, ND
How exposed is Bismarck to wildfire?
Bismarck sits at the 59th 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 27,195 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 Bismarck at the 55th percentile, close to its 59th-percentile risk score.
Where Bismarck's buildings actually sit
Most of Bismarck's buildings (59% of 27,195) 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 27,195 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Bismarck compares
There's little gap between Bismarck's 59th national percentile and its 72nd percentile inside North Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bismarck ranks 12,865 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 453 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 112 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bismarck
Bismarck's elevated wildfire rating (59th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 59% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Bismarck 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 27,195 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bismarck. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Bismarck, see the exposure-zones guide.