Pepperdine University, CA
How exposed is Pepperdine University to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Pepperdine University lands at the 95th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 147 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 Pepperdine University at the 94th percentile, close to its 95th-percentile risk score.
Where Pepperdine University's buildings actually sit
147 buildings are counted in Pepperdine University, and 77.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 22.5% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Pepperdine University against the rest of the country
Inside California, Pepperdine University sits at just the 74th percentile even though it scores 95th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pepperdine University ranks 1,535 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,979 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 406 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Pepperdine University sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 95th-percentile score like Pepperdine University's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 77.6% of Pepperdine University's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Pepperdine University's figures come from
Pepperdine University's 95th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pepperdine University's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.