Cornelius, NC
How exposed is Cornelius to wildfire?
Cornelius sits at the 46th 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 11,814 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cornelius's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 49th percentile nationally.
Where Cornelius's buildings actually sit
Most of Cornelius's buildings (45.8% of 11,814) 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 11,814 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Cornelius ranks
Inside North Carolina, Cornelius sits at just the 28th percentile even though it scores 46th 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, Cornelius ranks 17,088 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,322 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 554 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 46th national percentile, Cornelius rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Cornelius's 45.8% 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.
More on how this number was built
Cornelius's 46th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cornelius, see the exposure-zones guide.