California, MO
How exposed is California to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, California lands at the 73rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,265 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks California at the 75th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 18.2% of California's 2,265 buildings carry Direct exposure and 18.5% carry Indirect; the remaining 63.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
California against the rest of the country
California's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (88th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (73rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, California ranks 8,475 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,781 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 127 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
California and the insurance market
California's 73rd-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.
Hardening a home in California
With 63.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, California 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 2,265 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for California. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond California, see the exposure-zones guide.