California, MD
California wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts California at the 65th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 4,615 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts California at the 65th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Where California's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in California: 56% of its 4,615 buildings, versus 42.3% Indirect and 1.8% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where California ranks
California's 90th-percentile standing inside Maryland outpaces its 65th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, California ranks 11,122 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,685 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 56 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
California and the insurance market
California's 65th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With 56% of California in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where California's figures come from
California's 65th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what California's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.