Cape May, NJ
How exposed is Cape May to wildfire?
Cape May's 3,179 buildings earn a 67th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cape May at the 59th national percentile — 8 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
95.7% of Cape May's 3,179 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 2.3% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Cape May compares
Cape May scores 67th nationally and 77th within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cape May ranks 10,376 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,188 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 164 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Cape May's 67th-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 Cape May
With 95.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Cape May gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Cape May's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cape May's 10,376-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cape May's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.