Hernando, FL
Hernando, FL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Hernando at the 86th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 6,471 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hernando at the 85th percentile, close to its 86th-percentile risk score.
Where Hernando's buildings actually sit
6,471 buildings are counted in Hernando, and 70.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0.2% rated Minimal. At 6,471 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Hernando against the rest of the country
Hernando's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 67th ranking inside Florida does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 18 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hernando ranks 4,504 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,684 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 313 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Hernando and the insurance market
Hernando's very high rating (86th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Hernando (70.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Hernando's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hernando's 4,504-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hernando's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.