Champaign, IL
How exposed is Champaign to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Champaign lands at the 2nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 24,650 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Champaign's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 2nd percentile nationally.
Champaign's building exposure, zone by zone
99.1% of Champaign's 24,650 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 24,650 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Champaign against the rest of the country
Champaign scores 2nd nationally and 15th within Illinois — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Champaign ranks 30,846 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 519 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 1,223 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Champaign's low wildfire rating (2nd 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Champaign's 99.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Champaign's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 24,650 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Champaign. The exposure-zones guide covers what Champaign's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.