Taos, NM
Taos, NM's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Taos lands at the 87th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 3,969 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 Taos at the 78th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Taos's 3,969 counted buildings, 44% carry Direct exposure and only 14.4% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Taos compares
Taos's 87th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 67th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 20 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Taos ranks 4,198 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,276 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 166 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Taos
Taos's very high rating (87th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Taos (44%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Taos's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,969 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Taos. The exposure-zones guide covers what Taos's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.