Jackson, MO
Jackson, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Jackson sits at the 38th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,359 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Jackson at the 40th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Jackson rates 64.4% Minimal exposure against just 18.7% Direct and 16.9% Indirect — of 6,359 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 6,359 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Jackson against the rest of the country
Jackson's 38th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 12th ranking inside Missouri does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 26 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Jackson ranks 19,570 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,721 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 930 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Jackson's moderate wildfire rating (38th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 64.4% of Jackson outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Jackson's figures come from
Jackson's 38th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Jackson's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.