State College, PA
How exposed is State College to wildfire?
State College's 5,609 buildings earn a 31st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, State College's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 31st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of State College's buildings (86.2% of 5,609) 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. At 5,609 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How State College compares
There's little gap between State College's 31st national percentile and its 41st percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, State College ranks 21,666 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,080 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,172 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
State College and the insurance market
At the 31st national percentile, State College rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 86.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, State College 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,609 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for State College. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond State College, see the exposure-zones guide.