Essex, MD
Essex, MD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Essex lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 11,159 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Essex's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 28th percentile nationally.
Where Essex's buildings actually sit
Only 19.7% of Essex's 11,159 buildings carry Direct exposure and 22.9% carry Indirect; the remaining 57.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 11,159 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Essex against the rest of the country
Compare Essex's two percentiles: 46th within Maryland, only 30th nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Essex ranks 22,151 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,419 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 283 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
Essex's moderate rating (30th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 57.4% of Essex 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 11,159 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Essex. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Essex, see the exposure-zones guide.