Clayton, IL
Clayton wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Clayton at the 8th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 458 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Clayton at the 8th percentile, close to its 8th-percentile risk score.
Where Clayton's buildings actually sit
Only 2.6% of Clayton's 458 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 97.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Clayton compares
Compare Clayton's two percentiles: 38th within Illinois, only 8th nationally — a gap of 30 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clayton ranks 29,017 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,100 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 902 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Clayton and the insurance market
Clayton's low rating (8th 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 Clayton
Even with 97.4% of Clayton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Clayton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Clayton's 29,017-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Clayton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.