Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Elkhart County, IN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 41.0 Relatively Moderate

207,132
Population
12
Departments
31
Stations
45
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
1.32
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
10th highest of 92
Life Safety per 100k
0.64
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
66th highest of 92
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$30.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
12th highest of 92
Property Loss per Resident
$149
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
90th highest of 92

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 Elkhart County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 58% of the life-safety total.

Elkhart County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $30.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 92 Indiana counties. Nationally, Elkhart County ranks 447th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2328th for life safety per 100k residents, 576th for property loss, and 3105th 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 Elkhart 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 Elkhart County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

63%
37%
Property (buildings): $30.9M (62.6%)
Life safety: $18.1M (36.6%)
Agriculture: $369K (0.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $49,304,534 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)

Cold Wave
$10.4M
Tornado
$3.0M
Strong Wind
$2.8M
Heat Wave
$977K
Lightning
$353K
Winter Weather
$191K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$23.0M
Tornado
$4.2M
Hail
$2.2M
Earthquake
$1.1M
Strong Wind
$212K
Lightning
$60K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Elkhart 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

17%
42%
33%
8%
Career: 17% (2)
Combination: 42% (5)
Volunteer: 33% (4)
Unreported: 8% (1)
Residents per Station
6,682
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
15.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Elkhart County, IN. 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 Elkhart 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 12 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Baugo Fire Department 116,316 $9.9M Relatively Low 1
Osolo Township Fire Department 83,924 $7.4M Relatively Low 2
Concord Township Fire Department 54,030 $4.6M Relatively Low 4
Elkhart Fire Department 40,553 $3.5M Relatively Moderate 7
Goshen Fire Department 26,566 $2.4M Relatively Low 9
Middlebury Fire Department 13,227 $1.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Wakarusa Volunteer Fire Department 12,518 $1.1M Relatively Moderate 1
Bristol Fire Department 11,050 $976.6K Relatively Low 2
Nappanee Fire Department 10,548 $967.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Clinton Township Fire Department 8,094 $731.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Benton Township Volunteer Fire Department 5,083 $464.3K Relatively High 1
New Paris Fire Department 4,998 $462.8K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

12.4%
Poverty Rate
15.4%
Age 65+
12.5%
Disability Rate
14.2%
Uninsured
54.2%
Pre-1980 Housing
8.1%
Mobile Homes
10.2%
Vacancy Rate
1.4%
Wood Heat
$72,865
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
9
Last 25 Years
Snowstorm
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