North Mankato, MN
How exposed is North Mankato to wildfire?
North Mankato sits at the 40th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 5,499 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks North Mankato at the 38th national percentile — 2 points below 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 74.4% of North Mankato's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 13.1% Direct and 12.6% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 5,499 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 Mankato ranks
There's little gap between North Mankato's 40th national percentile and its 54th percentile inside Minnesota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Mankato ranks 19,067 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,137 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 424 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
North Mankato and the insurance market
At the 40th national percentile, North Mankato 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
Even with 74.4% of North Mankato 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.
More on how this number was built
North Mankato's 40th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond North Mankato, see the exposure-zones guide.