Wayland, IA
How exposed is Wayland to wildfire?
USFS scores Wayland at the 57th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 657 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wayland at the 59th percentile, close to its 57th-percentile risk score.
Where Wayland's buildings actually sit
93.9% of Wayland's 657 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 6.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Wayland ranks
Within Iowa, Wayland ranks higher (79th percentile) than it does nationally (57th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wayland ranks 13,486 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,099 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 215 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Wayland and the insurance market
Wayland's elevated rating (57th 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
With 93.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Wayland 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 Wayland's 13,486-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Wayland, see the exposure-zones guide.