Gouldtown, NJ
Gouldtown, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gouldtown lands at the 72nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 846 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gouldtown at the 71st national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Gouldtown's buildings actually sit
69.2% of Gouldtown's 846 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 585 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 11.9% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 18.9% are Minimal.
How Gouldtown compares
Gouldtown scores 72nd nationally and 81st within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gouldtown ranks 8,700 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,199 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 136 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Gouldtown's 72nd-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Gouldtown's 69.2% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Gouldtown's 72nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gouldtown, see the exposure-zones guide.