New USDA Report Identifies Wildfire Risk to Rural Communities

Mar 27, 2025

A newly-released report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) is drawing attention to a growing concern across the country: wildfires. Specific focus in the study was placed on documenting the number and share of people over the age of 60 living in high wildfire risk areas. Additionally, it highlighted how the aging population combined with wildfire risk has increased the number of older people exposed to wildfire risk since 2010. For farmers across the country, especially in rural areas, the report’s findings reveal important data which were presented before wildfires impacted Oklahoma and Texas in mid-March, and just months after the massive destruction in California.

In a report summary prepared by the USDA Economic Research Service in February, authors Richelle L. Winkler and Miranda H. Mockrin zero in on 7 key findings. Excerpts from that report are provided here.

Writing in “Aging and Wildfire Risk to Communities,” Winkler, a USDA ERS research social scientist and Mockrin, a research scientist with the USDA, Forest Service, offered this:

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