Hillsborough, NC
Hillsborough, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Hillsborough lands at the 34th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 3,567 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hillsborough at the 36th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Hillsborough's buildings actually sit
3,567 buildings are counted in Hillsborough, and 64.8% 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.
Hillsborough against the rest of the country
Inside North Carolina, Hillsborough sits at just the 6th percentile even though it scores 34th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hillsborough ranks 20,746 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,696 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 725 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Hillsborough's moderate rating (34th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Hillsborough
With 64.8% of Hillsborough in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Hillsborough's 34th-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 Hillsborough, see the exposure-zones guide.