Jonesborough, TN
Jonesborough wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Jonesborough lands at the 69th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,665 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Jonesborough's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 74th percentile nationally.
Where Jonesborough's buildings actually sit
Of Jonesborough's 2,665 counted buildings, 67.3% carry Direct exposure and only 2.3% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Jonesborough compares
Jonesborough scores 69th nationally and 65th within Tennessee — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Jonesborough ranks 9,686 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,991 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 179 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Jonesborough and the insurance market
Jonesborough's 69th-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 Jonesborough
Because Direct exposure dominates in Jonesborough (67.3%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Jonesborough's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Jonesborough's 9,686-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Jonesborough's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.