Mathews, VA
Mathews, VA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Mathews's 456 buildings earn a 57th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mathews's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 56th percentile nationally.
Where Mathews's buildings actually sit
456 buildings are counted in Mathews, and 70.8% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0.2% rated Minimal.
Mathews against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Mathews's 57th national percentile and its 62nd percentile inside Virginia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mathews ranks 13,694 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,166 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 256 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Mathews's elevated rating (57th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Mathews's 70.8% 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.
More on how this number was built
Mathews's 57th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Mathews, see the exposure-zones guide.