New Ulm, MN
New Ulm wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts New Ulm at the 32nd national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 8,275 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, New Ulm's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 30th percentile nationally.
New Ulm's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 5.8% of New Ulm's 8,275 buildings carry Direct exposure and 6.3% carry Indirect; the remaining 87.8% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 8,275 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where New Ulm ranks
New Ulm's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (39th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (32nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Ulm ranks 21,302 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,019 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 556 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in New Ulm
New Ulm's moderate rating (32nd 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
Even with 87.8% of New Ulm outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where New Ulm's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind New Ulm's 21,302-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what New Ulm's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.