Newark, NJ
Newark wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Newark lands at the 16th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 42,724 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Newark at the 17th 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
USFS classifies 99.8% of Newark's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 0.2% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 42,724 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Newark ranks
Newark scores 16th nationally and 1st within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newark ranks 26,603 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 221 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 690 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Newark's low wildfire rating (16th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Newark's 99.8% 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 Newark's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Newark's 26,603-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Newark's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.