Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Mecklenburg County, NC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 32.3 Relatively Low

1.2M
Population
16
Departments
145
Stations
305
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
2.65
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
2nd highest of 100
Life Safety per 100k
0.23
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
97th highest of 100
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$281.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
1st highest of 100
Property Loss per Resident
$244
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
67th highest of 100

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 Mecklenburg County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 39% of the life-safety total.

Mecklenburg County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $281.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Mecklenburg County ranks 205th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 3124th for life safety per 100k residents, 46th for property loss, and 2356th 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 Mecklenburg 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 Mecklenburg County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

89%
11%
Property (buildings): $281.6M (88.6%)
Life safety: $36.3M (11.4%)
Agriculture: $93K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $317,991,046 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
$14.0M
Heat Wave
$6.3M
Cold Wave
$5.0M
Inland Flooding
$3.5M
Strong Wind
$2.5M
Lightning
$2.0M

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$252.9M
Tornado
$10.5M
Earthquake
$9.0M
Hurricane
$3.8M
Hail
$3.2M
Ice Storm
$1.5M

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Mecklenburg 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

56%
38%
Career: 6% (1)
Combination: 56% (9)
Volunteer: 38% (6)
Residents per Station
7,963
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
12.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 16 departments registered in NERIS Public for Mecklenburg County, NC. 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 Mecklenburg 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 16 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Charlotte Fire Department 884,682 $28.3M Relatively Low 101
Bethel Volunteer Fire Department Inc 42,396 $4.1M Relatively Moderate 3
Hemby Bridge Fire Department 40,807 $3.6M Relatively Moderate 2
Flint Hill Fire Department 25,287 $2.4M Relatively High 4
Town of Huntersville Fire Department 67,314 $1.9M Relatively Low 8
Matthews Fire & Emergency Medical Services 30,430 $960.7K Relatively Moderate 4
Mint Hill Fire & Rescue 31,345 $949.1K Relatively Low 4
Cornelius-Lemley Fire Rescue 31,782 $932.4K Very Low 2
Davidson Fire Department 19,200 $653.3K Relatively Moderate 2
Midland Fire & Rescue 14,146 $629.4K Relatively Moderate 2
Steele Creek Fire Department, INC 21,295 $546.6K Relatively Low 8
Pineville-Morrow Volunteer Fire Department And Rescue, Inc. 10,952 $437.8K Relatively Low 1
Long Creek Volunteer Fire Department 10,126 $318.5K Relatively Low 1
Cook's Community Volunteer Fire Department 6,298 $193.7K Relatively Moderate 1
Robinson Volunteer Fire & Rescue, Inc. 6,328 $154.8K Relatively Moderate 1
Idlewild Fire Department 400 $12.1K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

10.4%
Poverty Rate
11.9%
Age 65+
8.9%
Disability Rate
11.5%
Uninsured
24.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.4%
Mobile Homes
7.3%
Vacancy Rate
0.1%
Wood Heat
$98,181
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

10
Last 10 Years
13
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo