Rancho Mission Viejo, CA
Rancho Mission Viejo, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Rancho Mission Viejo at the 99th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 3,009 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Rancho Mission Viejo's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 99th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
3,009 buildings are counted in Rancho Mission Viejo, and 81.5% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 18.5% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Rancho Mission Viejo against the rest of the country
Rancho Mission Viejo's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (89th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rancho Mission Viejo ranks 376 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 187 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Rancho Mission Viejo
Rancho Mission Viejo 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 99th-percentile score like Rancho Mission Viejo's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Rancho Mission Viejo (81.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Rancho Mission Viejo's 376-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Rancho Mission Viejo, see the exposure-zones guide.