Rockford, IL
How exposed is Rockford to wildfire?
Rockford's 61,789 buildings earn a 16th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Rockford at the 17th percentile, close to its 16th-percentile risk score.
Rockford's building exposure, zone by zone
Rockford rates 96.5% Minimal exposure against just 3.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 61,789 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 61,789 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Rockford against the rest of the country
Within Illinois, Rockford ranks higher (55th percentile) than it does nationally (16th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rockford ranks 26,465 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 125 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 656 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Rockford and the insurance market
At the 16th national percentile, Rockford 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
With 96.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Rockford gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Rockford's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Rockford's 26,465-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rockford's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.