Harperville, MS
Harperville wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Harperville lands at the 68th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 171 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Harperville at the 71st percentile, close to its 68th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
171 buildings are counted in Harperville, and 100% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Where Harperville ranks
Harperville ranks lower within Mississippi (50th percentile statewide) than its 68th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Harperville ranks 10,246 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,989 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 210 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Harperville's 68th-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.
Hardening a home in Harperville
Because Direct exposure dominates in Harperville (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Harperville's 10,246-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Harperville, see the exposure-zones guide.