Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Mercer County, KY

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 78.8 Relatively High

23,028
Population
4
Departments
17
Stations
5
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
0.26
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
52nd highest of 120
Life Safety per 100k
1.12
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
62nd highest of 120
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$8.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
48th highest of 120
Property Loss per Resident
$364
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
58th highest of 120

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 Mercer County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 45% of the life-safety total.

Mercer County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $8.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 120 Kentucky counties. Nationally, Mercer County ranks 1681st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1523rd for life safety per 100k residents, 1710th for property loss, and 1414th 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 Mercer 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 Mercer County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

70%
29%
Property (buildings): $8.4M (69.5%)
Life safety: $3.5M (29.2%)
Agriculture: $153K (1.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $12,071,371 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
$1.6M
Strong Wind
$718K
Cold Wave
$617K
Lightning
$205K
Heat Wave
$103K
Earthquake
$88K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$6.7M
Tornado
$709K
Strong Wind
$314K
Earthquake
$302K
Hail
$260K
Ice Storm
$56K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Mercer 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

50%
50%
Combination: 50% (2)
Volunteer: 50% (2)
Residents per Station
1,355
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
73.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 4 departments registered in NERIS Public for Mercer County, KY. 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 Mercer 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 4 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Harrodsburg Fire Department 14,960 $2.3M Very High 2
Cornishville Volunteer Fire Department 10,800 $1.7M Very High 1
Mercer County Fire Protection District 9,933 $1.4M Very High 13
Burgin Fire Department 3,360 $513.9K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.7%
Poverty Rate
18.9%
Age 65+
14.9%
Disability Rate
5.0%
Uninsured
53.9%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.1%
Mobile Homes
12.3%
Vacancy Rate
1.7%
Wood Heat
$67,467
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

8
Last 10 Years
16
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo