Northampton, PA
Northampton, PA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Northampton's 4,034 buildings earn a 19th-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, Northampton's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 19th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
97.1% of Northampton's 4,034 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 2.9% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Northampton against the rest of the country
Northampton's risk sits at a similar level relative to Pennsylvania (20th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (19th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Northampton ranks 25,633 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,210 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,594 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Northampton and the insurance market
At the 19th national percentile, Northampton rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 97.1% of Northampton 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Northampton's 25,633-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Northampton, see the exposure-zones guide.