North Chicago, IL
North Chicago wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts North Chicago at the 25th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 6,990 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks North Chicago at the 27th 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
USFS classifies 98.5% of North Chicago's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 1.3% Direct and 0.2% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 6,990 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where North Chicago ranks
Compare North Chicago's two percentiles: 71st within Illinois, only 25th nationally — a gap of 46 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Chicago ranks 23,724 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,471 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 422 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in North Chicago
At the 25th national percentile, North Chicago rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 98.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, North Chicago gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where North Chicago's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,990 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for North Chicago. The exposure-zones guide covers what North Chicago's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.