South Milwaukee, WI
South Milwaukee wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, South Milwaukee lands at the 32nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 9,831 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, South Milwaukee's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 34th percentile nationally.
Where South Milwaukee's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 98% of South Milwaukee's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 2% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 9,831 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
South Milwaukee against the rest of the country
Within Wisconsin, South Milwaukee ranks higher (70th percentile) than it does nationally (32nd) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Milwaukee ranks 21,480 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,650 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 239 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
South Milwaukee and the insurance market
At the 32nd national percentile, South Milwaukee rates moderate 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 98% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, South Milwaukee gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind South Milwaukee's 21,480-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond South Milwaukee, see the exposure-zones guide.