Monmouth, IA
Monmouth wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Monmouth at the 50th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 125 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Monmouth's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 52nd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 20% of Monmouth's 125 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 80% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Monmouth against the rest of the country
Compare Monmouth's two percentiles: 68th within Iowa, only 50th nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Monmouth ranks 15,844 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,936 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 322 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Monmouth
Monmouth's elevated rating (50th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Monmouth's 80% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Monmouth's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 125 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Monmouth. The exposure-zones guide covers what Monmouth's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.