Hilton Head Island, SC
Hilton Head Island, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Hilton Head Island's 17,294 buildings earn a 80th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hilton Head Island at the 70th percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Hilton Head Island's building exposure, zone by zone
17,294 buildings are counted in Hilton Head Island, and 78.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 5.2% rated Minimal. At 17,294 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Hilton Head Island compares
Hilton Head Island's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Carolina (83rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (80th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hilton Head Island ranks 6,440 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 830 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 82 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Hilton Head Island and the insurance market
Hilton Head Island's 80th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Hilton Head Island (78.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Hilton Head Island's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 17,294 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hilton Head Island. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hilton Head Island's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.