St. Charles, MO
St. Charles, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores St. Charles at the 24th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 25,235 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Charles at the 27th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 2.9% of St. Charles's 25,235 buildings carry Direct exposure and 4.4% carry Indirect; the remaining 92.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 25,235 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where St. Charles ranks
St. Charles ranks lower within Missouri (8th percentile statewide) than its 24th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Charles ranks 23,862 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 501 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 979 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
St. Charles and the insurance market
St. Charles's moderate rating (24th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
St. Charles's 92.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where St. Charles's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 25,235 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Charles. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Charles's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.