South Palm Beach, FL
How exposed is South Palm Beach to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, South Palm Beach lands at the 54th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 66 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks South Palm Beach at the 53rd national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
South Palm Beach's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of South Palm Beach's buildings (98.5% of 66) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
South Palm Beach against the rest of the country
Inside Florida, South Palm Beach sits at just the 7th percentile even though it scores 54th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Palm Beach ranks 14,394 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,410 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 885 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
South Palm Beach's elevated rating (54th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 98.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, South Palm Beach gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where South Palm Beach's figures come from
South Palm Beach's 54th-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 South Palm Beach's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.