Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

St. Joseph County, IN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 24.8 Relatively Low

273,040
Population
15
Departments
48
Stations
82
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
1.80
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
6th highest of 92
Life Safety per 100k
0.66
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
63rd highest of 92
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$35.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
8th highest of 92
Property Loss per Resident
$129
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
92nd highest of 92

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 St. Joseph County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 64% of the life-safety total.

St. Joseph County carries an expected 2 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $35.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 92 Indiana counties. Nationally, St. Joseph County ranks 321st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2296th for life safety per 100k residents, 517th for property loss, and 3171st 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 St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

59%
41%
Property (buildings): $35.4M (58.7%)
Life safety: $24.7M (41.0%)
Agriculture: $145K (0.2%)

Total expected annual loss: $60,199,118 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)

Cold Wave
$15.9M
Tornado
$3.6M
Strong Wind
$1.9M
Heat Wave
$1.5M
Lightning
$620K
Inland Flooding
$446K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$27.0M
Tornado
$4.1M
Hail
$2.5M
Earthquake
$1.3M
Strong Wind
$250K
Lightning
$131K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in St. Joseph 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

33%
47%
20%
Career: 33% (5)
Combination: 47% (7)
Volunteer: 20% (3)
Residents per Station
5,688
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
17.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 15 departments registered in NERIS Public for St. Joseph County, IN. 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 St. Joseph 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 15 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Baugo Fire Department 116,316 $9.9M Relatively Low 1
St. Joseph County Airport Authority Department Of Public Safety 108,716 $9.9M Very Low 1
City Of South Bend Indiana Fire Department 107,957 $9.8M Very Low 22
Osolo Township Fire Department 83,924 $7.4M Relatively Low 2
Clay Fire Territory 53,186 $4.8M Relatively Low 5
Mishawaka Fire Department 49,866 $4.6M Relatively Low 5
Kankakee Township Fire Department 31,057 $4.1M Relatively Moderate 1
Penn Township Fire Department 29,509 $2.6M Relatively Low 2
Centre Township Fire Department 22,187 $2.0M Relatively Low 2
New Carlisle Fire Department 13,363 $1.8M Relatively Moderate 2
Polk Township Fire Department 12,681 $1.4M Relatively Low 2
Walkerton Fire Department 12,681 $1.4M Relatively Low 1
Liberty Township Volunteer Fire Department 10,070 $945.9K Relatively Low 1
University Of Notre Dame Fire Department 6,866 $635.5K Relatively High 1
Lakeville Fire Department 3,475 $331.5K Relatively Moderate 0
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

14.2%
Poverty Rate
16.9%
Age 65+
13.4%
Disability Rate
7.1%
Uninsured
64.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.6%
Mobile Homes
9.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.4%
Wood Heat
$72,239
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
11
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
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.

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