Crofton, MD
Crofton wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Crofton lands at the 36th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 5,772 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Crofton at the 35th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Crofton's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 60.8% of Crofton's 5,772 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 30.4% Direct and 8.8% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 5,772 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Crofton ranks
Within Maryland, Crofton ranks higher (54th percentile) than it does nationally (36th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Crofton ranks 20,325 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,997 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 245 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Crofton's moderate wildfire rating (36th 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
Crofton's 60.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,772 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Crofton. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Crofton, see the exposure-zones guide.