Columbia, SC
Columbia, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Columbia's 46,881 buildings earn a 66th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Columbia at the 66th 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 Columbia's buildings (59.7% of 46,881) 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 46,881 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Columbia ranks
Inside South Carolina, Columbia sits at just the 38th percentile even though it scores 66th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Columbia ranks 10,852 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 192 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 296 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Columbia
At the 66th percentile nationally, Columbia carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 59.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Columbia gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 46,881 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Columbia. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Columbia, see the exposure-zones guide.