Catawba, NC
Catawba, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Catawba sits at the 49th 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 486 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Catawba at the 52nd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Catawba's buildings actually sit
Of Catawba's 486 counted buildings, 81.7% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Catawba against the rest of the country
Catawba scores 49th nationally and 36th within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Catawba ranks 15,982 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,602 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 493 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Catawba's elevated wildfire rating (49th 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.
Hardening a home in Catawba
Because Direct exposure dominates in Catawba (81.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Catawba's 15,982-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Catawba, see the exposure-zones guide.