North Carolina County Rankings

Fire deaths 2020-2021

North Carolina's 100 counties are ranked by the Overall Fireground Index — a normalization of the civilian fire-death rate (North Carolina State Fire Marshal counts per Census population), the one metric comparable across every county. Data confidence flags counties where small counts or sparse public reporting make the profile less certain; it is never folded into the score.

North Carolina counties ranked by Overall Fireground Index, with fire-death rate, five-year deaths, and data confidence.
Rank	County	Index	Fire-death rate	Deaths (5yr)	Confidence
1	Clay County12,042 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
2	Hyde County4,583 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
3	Jones County9,462 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
4	Mitchell County15,030 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
5	Perquimans County13,460 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
6	Transylvania County34,103 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
7	Tyrrell County3,517 pop.	74	0.00	0	limited
8	New Hanover County243,333 pop.	73	0.08	1	moderate
9	Chatham County83,874 pop.	71	0.24	1	moderate
10	Davie County45,383 pop.	68	0.44	1	moderate
11	Durham County343,628 pop.	68	0.47	8	moderate
12	Richmond County41,990 pop.	68	0.48	1	moderate
13	Wake County1,232,444 pop.	68	0.44	27	moderate
14	Franklin County79,771 pop.	67	0.50	2	moderate
15	Mecklenburg County1,206,285 pop.	66	0.60	36	moderate
16	Scotland County33,898 pop.	66	0.59	1	moderate
17	Gaston County242,010 pop.	65	0.66	8	moderate
18	Johnston County249,794 pop.	65	0.64	8	moderate
19	Brunswick County167,112 pop.	64	0.72	6	moderate
20	Cabarrus County244,925 pop.	64	0.73	9	moderate
21	Cleveland County102,194 pop.	64	0.78	4	moderate
22	Hoke County55,382 pop.	64	0.72	2	moderate
23	Onslow County212,954 pop.	64	0.75	8	moderate
24	Halifax County46,992 pop.	63	0.85	2	moderate
25	Pender County70,077 pop.	63	0.86	3	moderate
26	Surry County71,547 pop.	63	0.84	3	moderate
27	Union County263,386 pop.	63	0.84	11	moderate
28	Wayne County120,338 pop.	63	0.83	5	moderate
29	Lee County68,537 pop.	62	0.88	3	moderate
30	Martin County21,523 pop.	62	0.93	1	moderate
31	McDowell County45,269 pop.	62	0.88	2	moderate
32	Vance County42,337 pop.	62	0.94	2	moderate
33	Buncombe County279,210 pop.	61	1.00	14	moderate
34	Granville County61,544 pop.	61	0.97	3	moderate
35	Guilford County558,816 pop.	61	1.00	28	moderate
36	Catawba County167,054 pop.	60	1.08	9	moderate
37	Hertford County19,169 pop.	60	1.04	1	moderate
38	Iredell County206,361 pop.	60	1.07	11	moderate
39	Orange County152,877 pop.	60	1.05	8	moderate
40	Avery County17,811 pop.	59	1.12	1	moderate
41	Carteret County70,259 pop.	59	1.14	4	moderate
42	Currituck County32,278 pop.	58	1.24	2	moderate
43	Randolph County148,389 pop.	58	1.21	9	moderate
44	Robeson County118,624 pop.	58	1.18	7	moderate
45	Stanly County67,326 pop.	58	1.19	4	moderate
46	Rowan County153,384 pop.	57	1.30	10	moderate
47	Stokes County45,857 pop.	57	1.31	3	moderate
48	Ashe County27,266 pop.	55	1.47	2	moderate
49	Watauga County54,997 pop.	55	1.45	4	moderate
50	Forsyth County398,143 pop.	54	1.51	30	moderate
51	Person County40,143 pop.	54	1.49	3	moderate
52	Nash County97,990 pop.	53	1.63	8	moderate
53	Alamance County183,040 pop.	52	1.64	15	moderate
54	Henderson County120,771 pop.	52	1.66	10	moderate
55	Alleghany County11,379 pop.	51	1.76	1	moderate
56	Caldwell County80,739 pop.	51	1.73	7	moderate
57	Craven County104,167 pop.	51	1.73	9	moderate
58	Wilson County79,958 pop.	51	1.75	7	moderate
59	Caswell County22,363 pop.	50	1.79	2	moderate
60	Cumberland County338,430 pop.	50	1.83	31	moderate
61	Lincoln County97,611 pop.	50	1.84	9	moderate
62	Madison County22,352 pop.	50	1.79	2	moderate
63	Moore County108,417 pop.	50	1.84	10	moderate
64	Gates County10,299 pop.	49	1.94	1	moderate
65	Rockingham County93,517 pop.	49	1.92	9	moderate
66	Duplin County50,539 pop.	48	1.98	5	moderate
67	Pitt County180,783 pop.	48	1.99	18	moderate
68	Polk County20,320 pop.	48	1.97	2	moderate
69	Davidson County177,809 pop.	47	2.02	18	moderate
70	Wilkes County66,186 pop.	46	2.12	7	moderate
71	Yadkin County37,995 pop.	46	2.11	4	moderate
72	Harnett County146,096 pop.	45	2.19	16	moderate
73	Bertie County16,939 pop.	43	2.36	2	moderate
74	Northampton County16,580 pop.	42	2.41	2	moderate
75	Anson County22,432 pop.	39	2.67	3	moderate
76	Burke County88,545 pop.	39	2.71	12	moderate
77	Jackson County45,281 pop.	39	2.65	6	moderate
78	Chowan County13,891 pop.	36	2.88	2	moderate
79	Greene County20,671 pop.	36	2.90	3	moderate
80	Pasquotank County41,418 pop.	36	2.90	6	moderate
81	Montgomery County26,364 pop.	34	3.03	4	moderate
82	Haywood County63,048 pop.	33	3.17	10	moderate
83	Pamlico County12,550 pop.	32	3.19	2	moderate
84	Alexander County36,693 pop.	31	3.27	6	moderate
85	Cherokee County30,373 pop.	31	3.29	5	moderate
86	Lenoir County55,332 pop.	27	3.61	10	moderate
87	Macon County38,717 pop.	27	3.62	7	moderate
88	Rutherford County65,587 pop.	26	3.66	12	moderate
89	Sampson County60,404 pop.	26	3.64	11	moderate
90	Washington County10,654 pop.	25	3.75	2	moderate
91	Bladen County29,777 pop.	21	4.03	6	moderate
92	Warren County19,081 pop.	19	4.19	4	moderate
93	Yancey County18,993 pop.	19	4.21	4	moderate
94	Edgecombe County49,124 pop.	16	4.48	11	moderate
95	Beaufort County44,576 pop.	10	4.94	11	moderate
96	Graham County8,179 pop.	10	4.89	2	moderate
97	Columbus County50,054 pop.	6	5.19	13	moderate
98	Dare County38,183 pop.	6	5.24	10	moderate
99	Camden County11,184 pop.	4	5.36	3	moderate
100	Swain County13,945 pop.	0	5.74	4	moderate

Counties are ranked only against one another. A low fire-death count in a small county produces a high score but a limited confidence flag — the uncertainty is shown, not hidden. See the methodology and data sources.