Chicago, IL
How exposed is Chicago to wildfire?
Chicago sits at the 41st 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 726,417 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 Chicago at the 43rd percentile, close to its 41st-percentile risk score.
Where Chicago's buildings actually sit
99.9% of Chicago's 726,417 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 726,417 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Chicago against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Chicago ranks higher (93rd percentile) than it does nationally (41st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chicago ranks 18,555 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 97 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chicago
Chicago's elevated rating (41st percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Chicago
With 99.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Chicago gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Chicago's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chicago's 18,555-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chicago's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.