Cedar Falls, IA
How exposed is Cedar Falls to wildfire?
Cedar Falls sits at the 39th 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 15,962 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cedar Falls at the 40th national percentile — 1 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
Most of Cedar Falls's buildings (83.6% of 15,962) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 15,962 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Cedar Falls against the rest of the country
Cedar Falls's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (54th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (39th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cedar Falls ranks 19,279 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 919 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 471 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Cedar Falls's moderate wildfire rating (39th 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 Cedar Falls
With 83.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Cedar Falls gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Cedar Falls's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cedar Falls's 19,279-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cedar Falls's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.