Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Santa Clara County, CA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 86.5 Very High

1.9M
Population
25
Departments
215
Stations
408
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
27.6
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
3rd highest of 58
Life Safety per 100k
1.45
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
17th highest of 58
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$1.6B
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
5th highest of 58
Property Loss per Resident
$825
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
20th highest of 58

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 Santa Clara County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 91% of the life-safety total.

Santa Clara County carries an expected 28 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $1.6B in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 58 California counties. Nationally, Santa Clara County ranks 11th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1069th for life safety per 100k residents, 6th for property loss, and 228th 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 Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

80%
19%
Property (buildings): $1.6B (79.8%)
Life safety: $378.2M (19.2%)
Agriculture: $17.9M (0.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $1,965,273,869 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)

Earthquake
$345.4M
Heat Wave
$23.3M
Landslide
$4.1M
Inland Flooding
$3.9M
Tornado
$580K
Wildfire
$533K

By property loss ($/yr)

Earthquake
$841.3M
Inland Flooding
$709.1M
Wildfire
$9.6M
Coastal Flooding
$6.6M
Tornado
$1.3M
Landslide
$783K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Santa Clara 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

52%
16%
12%
20%
Career: 52% (13)
Combination: 16% (4)
Volunteer: 12% (3)
Unreported: 20% (5)
Residents per Station
8,847
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
11.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 25 departments registered in NERIS Public for Santa Clara County, CA. 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 Santa Clara 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 25 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
San Jose Fire Department 953,043 $196.9M Very High 36
Alameda County Fire Department 425,476 $85.9M Very High 29
Spring Valley Volunteer Fire Department 298,033 $61.0M Very High 3
Stevens Creek Volunteer Fire Department 298,033 $61.0M Very High 0
Santa Clara County Fire Department 260,022 $59.5M Very High 19
Fremont Fire Department 233,403 $51.6M Very High 13
City Of Sunnyvale Department Of Public Safety - Fire Division 148,089 $28.9M Relatively High 7
Santa Clara Fire Department 118,427 $25.4M Very High 12
Merced County Fire Department 290,201 $24.2M Relatively High 19
City Of Palo Alto Fire Department 87,503 $24.0M Very High 6
Hollister Fire Department 96,047 $20.0M Very High 4
San Benito County Fire Department 96,047 $20.0M Very High 1
Milpitas Fire Department 75,648 $17.8M Very High 4
Menlo Park Fire Protection District 76,602 $17.5M Very High 10
Santa Cruz County Fire Department 58,374 $16.3M Very High 5
Mountain View Fire Department 76,190 $13.6M Very High 5
King Mountain Volunteer Fire Department 55,017 $11.7M Very High 1
La Honda Fire Brigade 55,017 $11.7M Very High 1
San Mateo County Fire Department 55,018 $11.7M Very High 2
Gilroy Fire Department 49,185 $11.7M Very High 8
Pajaro Valley Fire Protection District 21,571 $7.6M Very High 1
Cdf Santa Clara 32,810 $4.9M Very High 11
Morgan Hill City Fire Department 32,736 $4.9M Very High 4
West Stanislaus County Fire Protection District 41,764 $4.4M Relatively High 13
Nasa/Ames Fire Department 845 $51.3K Very Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.1%
Poverty Rate
14.8%
Age 65+
9.0%
Disability Rate
3.9%
Uninsured
59.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.8%
Mobile Homes
5.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.2%
Wood Heat
$168,633
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

10
Last 10 Years
14
Last 25 Years
Fire
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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