North Muskegon, MI
How exposed is North Muskegon to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, North Muskegon lands at the 30th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 1,782 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts North Muskegon at the 29th percentile, close to its 30th-percentile risk score.
Where North Muskegon's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 82.9% of North Muskegon's 1,782 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 16% Direct and 1.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
North Muskegon against the rest of the country
Compare North Muskegon's two percentiles: 82nd within Michigan, only 30th nationally — a gap of 52 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Muskegon ranks 22,121 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,118 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 135 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
At the 30th national percentile, North Muskegon 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
North Muskegon's 82.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where North Muskegon's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind North Muskegon's 22,121-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what North Muskegon's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.