Golden Valley, MN
How exposed is Golden Valley to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Golden Valley lands at the 31st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 8,304 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Golden Valley at the 32nd national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Golden Valley's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Golden Valley's buildings (86% of 8,304) 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 8,304 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Golden Valley compares
Golden Valley scores 31st nationally and 38th within Minnesota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Golden Valley ranks 21,711 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,007 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 572 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Golden Valley
Golden Valley's moderate wildfire rating (31st 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.
Hardening a home in Golden Valley
With 86% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Golden Valley 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
Golden Valley's 31st-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 Golden Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.