Princeton, IL
Princeton, IL's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Princeton at the 10th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 4,564 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Princeton at the 10th percentile, close to its 10th-percentile risk score.
Princeton's building exposure, zone by zone
Princeton rates 93% Minimal exposure against just 7% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 4,564 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Princeton against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Princeton ranks higher (43rd percentile) than it does nationally (10th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Princeton ranks 28,421 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,739 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 829 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Princeton and the insurance market
Princeton's low wildfire rating (10th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
With 93% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Princeton gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Princeton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Princeton's 28,421-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Princeton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.