Matawan, NJ
How exposed is Matawan to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Matawan lands at the 62nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,831 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Matawan's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 61st percentile nationally.
Where Matawan's buildings actually sit
Matawan rates 52.2% Minimal exposure against just 24.3% Direct and 23.5% Indirect — of 2,831 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Matawan compares
Matawan's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (71st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (62nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Matawan ranks 11,981 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,696 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 204 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Matawan's 62nd-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 Matawan
With 52.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Matawan gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Matawan's 62nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Matawan, see the exposure-zones guide.