Cary, NC
Cary, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Cary sits at the 33rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 49,940 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 Cary at the 34th percentile, close to its 33rd-percentile risk score.
Where Cary's buildings actually sit
49,940 buildings are counted in Cary, and 39.1% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 38.1% rated Minimal. At 49,940 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Cary ranks
Cary ranks lower within North Carolina (4th percentile statewide) than its 33rd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cary ranks 21,280 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 176 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 737 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cary
At the 33rd national percentile, Cary rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Cary's 39.1% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cary's 21,280-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Cary, see the exposure-zones guide.