Kiawah Island, SC
How exposed is Kiawah Island to wildfire?
Kiawah Island sits at the 90th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 3,089 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Kiawah Island at the 85th percentile, close to its 90th-percentile risk score.
Where Kiawah Island's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 78.1% of Kiawah Island's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 21.4% Indirect share and far above its 0.5% Minimal share — a profile where 2,411 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Kiawah Island compares
There's little gap between Kiawah Island's 90th national percentile and its 98th percentile inside South Carolina, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kiawah Island ranks 3,098 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,300 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 12 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Kiawah Island's very high rating (90th 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.
Hardening a home in Kiawah Island
Kiawah Island's 78.1% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Kiawah Island's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,089 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Kiawah Island. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kiawah Island's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.