Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Plymouth County, MA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 26.5 Relatively Low

535,075
Population
29
Departments
135
Stations
111
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
0.73
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
7th highest of 14
Life Safety per 100k
0.14
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
10th highest of 14
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$102.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 14
Property Loss per Resident
$191
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
9th highest of 14

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 Plymouth County, the largest single contributor is Heat Wave, 25% of the life-safety total.

Plymouth County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $102.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 14 Massachusetts counties. Nationally, Plymouth County ranks 782nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3208th for life safety per 100k residents, 208th for property loss, and 2840th 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

90%
9%
Property (buildings): $102.4M (89.6%)
Life safety: $10.0M (8.7%)
Agriculture: $1.9M (1.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $114,312,951 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)

Heat Wave
$2.5M
Strong Wind
$2.0M
Cold Wave
$2.0M
Lightning
$1.6M
Earthquake
$780K
Inland Flooding
$461K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$70.4M
Coastal Flooding
$14.3M
Hurricane
$10.2M
Earthquake
$4.1M
Tornado
$1.3M
Strong Wind
$1.2M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Plymouth 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

38%
59%
Career: 38% (11)
Combination: 59% (17)
Volunteer: 3% (1)
Residents per Station
3,964
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
25.2
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 29 departments registered in NERIS Public for Plymouth County, MA. 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 Plymouth 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 29 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Boston Fire Department 623,713 $20.1M Very Low 37
Brockton Fire Department 102,128 $2.0M Relatively Low 17
Plymouth Fire Department 61,100 $895.4K Relatively Low 7
Bridgewater Fire Department 27,454 $574.8K Relatively Low 2
Middleboro Fire Department 24,346 $454.6K Relatively Low 3
Marshfield Fire Department 23,491 $448.1K Relatively Low 6
Hingham Fire Department 21,688 $417.3K Relatively Low 4
Rockland Fire Department 16,521 $336.6K Relatively Low 1
Pembroke Fire Department 17,449 $326.8K Relatively Low 4
Scituate Fire Department 16,020 $306.4K Very Low 3
Abington Fire Department 15,866 $296.3K Very Low 5
Hanover Fire Department 14,083 $277.9K Relatively Low 3
East Bridgewater Fire Department 13,772 $272.1K Very Low 1
Town Of Whitman 14,246 $265.9K Very Low 1
Wareham Fire Department 16,448 $262.7K Relatively Moderate 4
Duxbury Fire Department 13,927 $244.0K Relatively Low 2
Kingston Fire Department 13,192 $225.6K Relatively Low 2
Lakeville Fire Department 11,944 $215.0K Relatively Low 2
Norwell Fire Department 10,717 $207.9K Relatively Low 5
Carver Fire Department 11,484 $206.7K Relatively Moderate 3
Hanson Fire Department 10,006 $190.8K Very Low 2
West Bridgewater Fire Department 7,491 $166.6K Very Low 2
Halifax Fire Department 7,748 $144.1K Relatively Moderate 1
Onset Fire District Fire Department 8,418 $128.6K Relatively Low 1
Mattapoisett Fire Department 6,634 $113.2K Relatively High 1
Hull Fire Department 4,242 $103.2K Relatively Moderate 7
Rochester Fire Department 5,837 $87.4K Relatively Moderate 3
Marion Fire Department 5,310 $86.8K Relatively Moderate 4
Plympton Fire Department 2,935 $54.1K Very Low 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.1%
Poverty Rate
19.8%
Age 65+
11.8%
Disability Rate
2.5%
Uninsured
62.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.3%
Mobile Homes
6.9%
Vacancy Rate
0.9%
Wood Heat
$121,187
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
20
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.

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