Royal Hawaiian Estates, HI
Royal Hawaiian Estates, HI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Royal Hawaiian Estates lands at the 85th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 526 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 Royal Hawaiian Estates at the 82nd percentile, close to its 85th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
99.6% of Royal Hawaiian Estates's 526 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 524 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0.4% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Royal Hawaiian Estates against the rest of the country
Royal Hawaiian Estates's 85th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 16th ranking inside Hawaii does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 69 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Royal Hawaiian Estates ranks 4,815 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,920 by building count (1 is largest). Within Hawaii alone, it ranks 137 of 163 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Hawaii on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Royal Hawaiian Estates
Royal Hawaiian Estates's 85th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Royal Hawaiian Estates (99.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Royal Hawaiian Estates's figures come from
Royal Hawaiian Estates's 85th-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 Royal Hawaiian Estates's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.