Mooresville, NC
Mooresville wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Mooresville at the 50th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 17,028 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mooresville at the 53rd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
17,028 buildings are counted in Mooresville, and 41.7% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 21.4% rated Minimal. At 17,028 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Mooresville compares
There's little gap between Mooresville's 50th national percentile and its 37th percentile inside North Carolina, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mooresville ranks 15,859 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 849 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 484 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Mooresville
Mooresville's elevated wildfire rating (50th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Mooresville (41.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 17,028 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Mooresville. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Mooresville, see the exposure-zones guide.