Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Cole County, MO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 68.4 Relatively High

77,032
Population
8
Departments
42
Stations
18
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
1.23
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
16th highest of 115
Life Safety per 100k
1.59
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
77th highest of 115
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$25.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
15th highest of 115
Property Loss per Resident
$330
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
74th highest of 115

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 Cole County, the largest single contributor is Heat Wave, 41% of the life-safety total.

Cole County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $25.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 115 Missouri counties. Nationally, Cole County ranks 475th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 934th for life safety per 100k residents, 715th for property loss, and 1635th 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 Cole 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 Cole County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

60%
39%
Property (buildings): $25.4M (59.6%)
Life safety: $16.8M (39.4%)
Agriculture: $403K (0.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $42,664,109 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
$6.9M
Tornado
$4.7M
Cold Wave
$1.5M
Strong Wind
$1.1M
Earthquake
$1.1M
Lightning
$718K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$19.1M
Tornado
$2.0M
Earthquake
$1.7M
Ice Storm
$1.3M
Strong Wind
$458K
Hail
$314K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Cole 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

12%
25%
62%
Career: 12% (1)
Combination: 25% (2)
Volunteer: 62% (5)
Residents per Station
1,834
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
54.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 8 departments registered in NERIS Public for Cole County, MO. 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 Cole 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 8 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Cole County Fire Protection District 37,003 $9.8M Relatively High 7
Jefferson City Fire Department 44,051 $9.8M Relatively High 6
Regional West Fire Protection District 25,359 $5.2M Relatively High 5
California Rural Fire Protection District 19,394 $4.2M Relatively High 4
Osage Fire Protection District 14,553 $3.5M Very High 3
Russellville-Lohman Fire Protection District 13,877 $3.1M Relatively High 3
South Callaway Fire Protection District 16,173 $3.0M Relatively High 9
Southern Boone County Fire Protection District 16,041 $1.9M Relatively Moderate 5
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

9.0%
Poverty Rate
18.0%
Age 65+
13.1%
Disability Rate
5.8%
Uninsured
47.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.3%
Mobile Homes
7.3%
Vacancy Rate
2.0%
Wood Heat
$80,279
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
18
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

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