Natchez, MS
Natchez wildfire risk explained
Natchez sits at the 55th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 7,505 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Natchez at the 56th national percentile — 1 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
7,505 buildings are counted in Natchez, and 60.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 39.3% in Direct exposure or the 0.5% rated Minimal. At 7,505 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Natchez against the rest of the country
Inside Mississippi, Natchez sits at just the 24th percentile even though it scores 55th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Natchez ranks 14,216 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,280 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 320 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Natchez and the insurance market
Natchez's elevated rating (55th 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
Because 60.2% of Natchez's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Natchez's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Natchez's 14,216-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Natchez's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.