Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Dakota County, MN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 35.2 Relatively Low

445,771
Population
12
Departments
38
Stations
106
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
3.02
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 87
Life Safety per 100k
0.68
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
69th highest of 87
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$91.5M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 87
Property Loss per Resident
$205
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
86th highest of 87

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 Dakota County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 43% of the life-safety total.

Dakota County carries an expected 3 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $91.5M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 87 Minnesota counties. Nationally, Dakota County ranks 174th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2263rd for life safety per 100k residents, 238th for property loss, and 2723rd 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 Dakota 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 Dakota County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

68%
31%
Property (buildings): $91.5M (68.5%)
Life safety: $41.4M (31.0%)
Agriculture: $740K (0.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $133,716,562 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
$18.0M
Cold Wave
$12.0M
Strong Wind
$4.7M
Heat Wave
$3.2M
Lightning
$1.3M
Inland Flooding
$783K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$55.7M
Tornado
$14.0M
Strong Wind
$13.9M
Hail
$7.5M
Lightning
$179K
Winter Weather
$93K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Dakota 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

25%
50%
25%
Career: 25% (3)
Combination: 50% (6)
Unreported: 25% (3)
Residents per Station
11,731
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
8.5
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Dakota County, MN. 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 Dakota 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
Lakeville Fire Department 74,225 $6.6M Relatively Low 12
Eagan Fire Department 66,297 $6.2M Relatively Low 3
Burnsville Fire Department 61,993 $5.7M Relatively Low 4
City Of Apple Valley Fire Department 52,902 $4.9M Relatively Low 4
Northfield Area Fire & Rescue Service 36,937 $4.8M Relatively High 1
Hastings Fire Department 34,102 $3.6M Relatively Low 1
Inver Grove Heights Fire Department 35,367 $3.3M Relatively Moderate 3
Farmington Fire Department 27,475 $2.9M Relatively Moderate 4
Rosemount Fire Department 31,126 $2.7M Relatively Low 2
South Metro Fire Department 19,381 $1.7M Relatively Low 2
Miesville Volunteer Fire Department 12,012 $1.4M Relatively Moderate 1
Mendota Heights Fire Department 13,289 $1.2M Relatively Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

5.8%
Poverty Rate
15.9%
Age 65+
10.8%
Disability Rate
4.2%
Uninsured
34.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.6%
Mobile Homes
2.5%
Vacancy Rate
0.2%
Wood Heat
$112,508
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

2
Last 10 Years
6
Last 25 Years
Flood
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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