Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Polk County, FL

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 50.9 Relatively Moderate

790,694
Population
17
Departments
100
Stations
174
Census Tracts

Natural Hazard Loss Profile

Expected annual loss across the 18 natural hazards in FEMA's National Risk Index. Life safety is expressed in fatality-equivalents, combining expected deaths and injuries. Property loss counts building damage only, separate from agriculture.

Natural Hazard Life Safety
1.63
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 67
Life Safety per 100k
0.21
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
67th highest of 67
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$183.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
13th highest of 67
Property Loss per Resident
$232
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
56th highest of 67

These figures cover natural hazards only. Structure fire, EMS, and motor vehicle incidents are not included in the National Risk Index and are not counted here, so this is not an all-cause life safety measure. For Polk County, the largest single contributor is Lightning, 28% of the life-safety total.

Polk County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $183.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 67 Florida counties. Nationally, Polk County ranks 367th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3161st for life safety per 100k residents, 105th for property loss, and 2479th for property loss per resident. Computed from census tract data covering every resident, independent of fire department boundaries.

Add fire mortality, cause, and loss

Natural hazard exposure is one half of the picture. The other half is what your departments run on: fire deaths and injuries, cause of ignition, dollar loss per incident. That comes from NERIS incident reporting, and it grows as departments serving Polk County enroll. Our Regional tier brings it together across your jurisdiction, with participating departments, alongside response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Talk to us about Polk County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

86%
10%
Property (buildings): $183.2M (86.2%)
Life safety: $22.3M (10.5%)
Agriculture: $7.0M (3.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $212,568,255 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.

Hazards Ranked Two Ways

The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.

By life-safety loss ($/yr)

Lightning
$6.2M
Hurricane
$5.4M
Heat Wave
$4.3M
Tornado
$3.2M
Strong Wind
$1.7M
Wildfire
$981K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$83.7M
Inland Flooding
$64.8M
Strong Wind
$21.9M
Tornado
$6.2M
Wildfire
$5.7M
Hail
$227K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Polk County. Gray tracts have no modeled loss or no resident population. Per-resident figures on this map use the National Risk Index 2020 tract population.

Fire Service Profile

47%
29%
24%
Career: 47% (8)
Combination: 29% (5)
Volunteer: 24% (4)
Residents per Station
7,907
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
12.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Polk County, FL. Departments that have not registered are not counted. Station coverage divides census population by registered stations; department service areas overlap, so their populations are not summed.

Department Rankings

Fire and EMS departments serving Polk County. Click column headers to sort.

NRI Rating is from FEMA's National Risk Index, which measures community risk across 18 natural hazards using expected annual losses, social vulnerability, and community resilience. Life-Safety Loss uses FEMA's Value of Statistical Life ($13.7M per expected fatality) to estimate annual risk to human life.

Department boundaries and station counts are self-reported through NERIS Public and may not reflect current service areas. Population and Life-Safety Loss reflect each department's full jurisdiction. County-level risk metrics are computed from census tract data and are not affected by boundary accuracy. See full methodology.

Showing 17 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Polk County Fire Rescue 825,575 $33.3M Relatively Moderate 43
City Of Tavares Fire Department 346,155 $15.3M Relatively Moderate 2
City Of Fruitland Park Fire Department 346,154 $15.3M Relatively Moderate 1
Umatilla Fire Department 346,154 $15.3M Relatively Moderate 1
Osceola County Department Of Fire Rescue And Ems 291,039 $8.9M Relatively High 24
Lakeland Fire Department 120,516 $3.4M Relatively Moderate 8
Liberty Fire District 23,087 $2.3M Relatively High 2
Winter Haven Fire Department 57,087 $1.7M Relatively Moderate 5
Haines City Fire Department 54,827 $1.5M Relatively Moderate 3
Bartow Fire Department 43,170 $1.3M Relatively Moderate 2
Auburndale Fire Department 38,157 $992.5K Relatively Low 1
Lake Wales Fire Department 30,154 $888.0K Relatively Moderate 2
Lake Alfred Fire Department 28,377 $728.7K Relatively Moderate 1
Dundee Fire Department 20,399 $576.4K Relatively Moderate 1
Frostproof Fire Department 11,782 $360.0K Relatively Moderate 1
Fort Meade Fire Department 7,647 $218.6K Relatively Moderate 1
City Of Davenport Fire Department 8,955 $216.9K Relatively High 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

14.5%
Poverty Rate
19.5%
Age 65+
13.8%
Disability Rate
12.4%
Uninsured
30.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
19.6%
Mobile Homes
15.1%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$68,828
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

17
Last 10 Years
29
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

Our Regional tier gives county fire authorities and state fire marshals rollup dashboards across all departments in your jurisdiction: response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo