Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Kentucky

Statewide risk profile

4.5M
Population
120
Counties
693
Departments
1,339
Stations

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
53.1
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 52
Life Safety per 100k
1.17
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
20th highest of 52
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$1.6B
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
23rd highest of 52
Property Loss per Resident
$354
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
15th highest of 52

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 Kentucky, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 29% of the life-safety total.

Kentucky carries an expected 53 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $1.6B in building loss per year. Ranks compare all 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico. 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 in Kentucky 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 Kentucky See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

68%
31%
Property (buildings): $1.6B (67.8%)
Life safety: $727.5M (30.8%)
Agriculture: $33.5M (1.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $2,364,869,793 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)

Tornado
$214.1M
Cold Wave
$163.8M
Earthquake
$92.1M
Strong Wind
$73.3M
Heat Wave
$68.1M
Inland Flooding
$62.5M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$1.2B
Earthquake
$149.7M
Tornado
$118.8M
Hail
$61.2M
Strong Wind
$33.5M
Ice Storm
$23.5M

County Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across counties in this state. Click any county for its full profile.

Fire Service Profile

16%
76%
Career: 7%
Combination: 16%
Volunteer: 76%
Unreported: 1%
Residents per Station
3,387
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
29.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 693 departments registered in NERIS Public for Kentucky. Departments that have not registered are not counted. The mix is computed over the departments NERIS registers to Kentucky; departments based elsewhere that respond into it are counted in the total above but not in the mix. Station coverage divides census population by registered stations; department service areas overlap, so their populations are not summed.

County Rankings

Counties in Kentucky ranked by risk. Click column headers to sort. Click a county to see its departments.

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 and station counts are derived from boundaries self-reported through NERIS Public and may not reflect current service areas. A department serving several counties is counted in each, so the Departments column adds up to more than the statewide department total. Risk metrics are computed from census tract data and are not affected by boundary accuracy. See full methodology.

Showing 120 counties
County Population Departments Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating
Jefferson County 783,022 28 $93.7M Relatively Moderate
Fayette County 323,725 1 $43.0M Relatively Moderate
McCracken County 67,564 10 $33.2M Very High
Boone County 139,841 11 $21.8M Relatively Moderate
Daviess County 103,648 8 $18.7M Very High
Kenton County 171,288 18 $18.6M Relatively Low
Madison County 95,769 11 $17.7M Relatively Moderate
Bullitt County 84,027 8 $16.9M Relatively High
Warren County 140,918 11 $16.8M Very High
Graves County 36,630 14 $16.7M Very High
Christian County 72,069 14 $16.1M Relatively High
Hardin County 111,942 15 $12.9M Relatively Moderate
Calloway County 38,224 5 $12.0M Very High
Knox County 29,865 9 $11.9M Relatively High
Oldham County 69,257 8 $11.1M Relatively Moderate
Laurel County 62,983 10 $10.7M Relatively High
Pulaski County 65,897 13 $9.4M Relatively High
Boyd County 47,911 8 $9.3M Relatively High
Franklin County 51,842 4 $8.9M Relatively Moderate
Logan County 27,986 11 $8.9M Very High
Campbell County 93,426 8 $8.6M Relatively Low
Perry County 27,499 12 $8.5M Very High
Shelby County 49,096 10 $8.5M Relatively High
Nelson County 47,606 9 $7.9M Relatively High
Hopkins County 45,119 14 $7.5M Relatively High
Scott County 59,536 5 $7.4M Relatively Low
Whitley County 36,920 11 $7.4M Relatively High
Jessamine County 54,588 4 $7.3M Relatively Moderate
Marshall County 31,743 9 $7.3M Relatively High
Henderson County 44,280 12 $7.2M Relatively High
Pike County 56,727 25 $6.6M Very High
Barren County 44,938 3 $6.2M Relatively High
Wayne County 19,602 1 $5.9M Relatively High
Breathitt County 13,276 8 $5.9M Very High
Pendleton County 14,723 4 $5.2M Relatively High
Meade County 30,158 7 $5.2M Relatively High
Muhlenberg County 30,591 4 $4.9M Relatively High
Johnson County 22,334 11 $4.9M Very High
Boyle County 30,941 4 $4.6M Relatively High
Carter County 26,341 8 $4.6M Relatively High
Clay County 19,921 9 $4.5M Very High
Clark County 37,192 4 $4.5M Relatively Moderate
Greenup County 35,501 15 $4.2M Relatively High
Anderson County 24,353 2 $4.1M Relatively High
Woodford County 27,279 3 $4.0M Relatively Moderate
Fulton County 6,409 9 $3.8M Very High
Harlan County 25,772 20 $3.7M Relatively High
Taylor County 26,397 5 $3.7M Relatively High
Grant County 25,418 7 $3.7M Relatively Moderate
Ohio County 23,735 7 $3.5M Relatively High
Spencer County 20,193 2 $3.5M Relatively High
Mercer County 23,028 4 $3.5M Relatively High
Rowan County 24,578 5 $3.5M Relatively High
Hickman County 4,439 3 $3.5M Very High
Letcher County 20,808 14 $3.5M Relatively High
Montgomery County 28,395 1 $3.4M Relatively Moderate
Allen County 21,293 5 $3.4M Relatively High
Bell County 23,509 4 $3.3M Relatively High
Ballard County 7,654 12 $3.2M Very High
Bourbon County 20,240 9 $3.2M Relatively Moderate
Grayson County 26,707 7 $3.1M Relatively Moderate
Caldwell County 12,618 3 $3.0M Very High
Adair County 19,089 4 $3.0M Relatively High
Simpson County 19,972 3 $2.9M Relatively High
Marion County 19,749 5 $2.9M Relatively High
Todd County 12,469 8 $2.8M Very High
Trigg County 14,315 9 $2.7M Very High
Russell County 18,221 2 $2.7M Relatively High
Breckinridge County 20,881 9 $2.6M Relatively High
Lincoln County 24,504 4 $2.6M Relatively Moderate
Lyon County 8,900 2 $2.5M Very High
Union County 13,260 6 $2.5M Very High
Harrison County 19,140 4 $2.5M Relatively High
Mason County 16,956 10 $2.4M Relatively High
Lewis County 12,965 11 $2.4M Relatively High
Hart County 19,603 7 $2.4M Relatively High
Livingston County 8,903 8 $2.4M Very High
Bracken County 8,444 3 $2.4M Relatively High
Owen County 11,330 7 $2.4M Relatively Moderate
Floyd County 35,224 11 $2.3M Very High
Casey County 15,914 8 $2.2M Relatively High
Gallatin County 8,769 6 $2.2M Relatively High
McCreary County 16,867 3 $2.2M Relatively Moderate
Webster County 12,842 7 $2.2M Relatively High
Garrard County 17,568 5 $2.2M Relatively Moderate
Washington County 12,140 3 $2.2M Relatively High
Knott County 13,830 5 $2.1M Very High
Crittenden County 8,979 6 $2.0M Relatively High
Rockcastle County 16,163 5 $2.0M Relatively High
Henry County 15,856 6 $2.0M Relatively Moderate
Bath County 12,851 6 $2.0M Relatively Moderate
Leslie County 10,079 8 $2.0M Relatively High
Carlisle County 4,762 5 $1.9M Relatively High
Estill County 14,035 5 $1.9M Relatively High
Fleming County 15,323 9 $1.8M Relatively High
Monroe County 11,269 5 $1.8M Relatively High
Powell County 13,038 7 $1.8M Relatively High
Lawrence County 16,077 7 $1.7M Very High
Carroll County 10,954 1 $1.7M Very High
Larue County 15,107 6 $1.7M Relatively Moderate
Edmonson County 12,355 9 $1.5M Relatively Moderate
Jackson County 13,086 9 $1.5M Relatively Moderate
McLean County 9,114 6 $1.5M Very High
Trimble County 8,550 2 $1.5M Relatively High
Butler County 12,393 4 $1.5M Relatively Moderate
Clinton County 9,202 1 $1.5M Relatively High
Green County 11,369 8 $1.4M Relatively Moderate
Metcalfe County 10,425 4 $1.3M Relatively High
Hancock County 9,034 5 $1.2M Very High
Morgan County 14,053 7 $1.2M Relatively Moderate
Nicholas County 7,708 3 $1.1M Very High
Martin County 11,027 1 $1.1M Very High
Cumberland County 5,948 3 $938.1K Very High
Magoffin County 11,348 2 $901.1K Relatively High
Lee County 7,339 3 $848.6K Relatively Moderate
Elliott County 7,307 5 $660.1K Relatively Moderate
Wolfe County 6,443 2 $606.8K Very High
Menifee County 6,230 2 $572.3K Relatively High
Owsley County 3,971 2 $443.8K Relatively Moderate
Robertson County 2,283 1 $304.3K Relatively Moderate
No counties match your search.
Don't see your department? Profiles exist for every department in NERIS Public with a published boundary polygon. Departments registered without a boundary, or not yet registered with NERIS, do not have a page yet because the analysis is geography-based. See why a department might be missing or contact us and we will look into it.

Risk Snapshot

16.1%
Poverty Rate
17.3%
Age 65+
17.9%
Disability Rate
6.0%
Uninsured
47.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
10.7%
Mobile Homes
10.3%
Vacancy Rate
1.9%
Wood Heat
$68,599
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

1370
Last 10 Years
2537
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

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