Niles, MI
Niles, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Niles's 5,069 buildings earn a 7th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Niles's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 8th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
52% of Niles's 5,069 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 12.7% Direct and 35.3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 5,069 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Niles compares
There's little gap between Niles's 7th national percentile and its 21st percentile inside Michigan, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Niles ranks 29,224 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,399 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 586 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Niles's low wildfire rating (7th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Niles (52% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Niles's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Niles's 29,224-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Niles's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.