Photo: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.0High radon around Perth: 17% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Perth, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Perth sits near the middle: $0.043 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Perth grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Perth’s hazards
For Perth, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Perth faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Perth: C−
The grade weighs Perth’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Perth: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Perth’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Perth burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Perth’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 5.3 km out.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Perth: 48% within 5 km and 48% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in New Brunswick · highest of 61
Little or nothing burns around Perth in a typical year; 16 of the 61 towns in New Brunswick share that, and Tracadie leads at 0.28%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Perth is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Perth is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Perth: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Perth is Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Perth is one of the 93% of towns in New Brunswick with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Perth.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Perth: $0.043 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.4 times the typical $0.030: Perth’s $0.043 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Perth runs at $0.043 a year, near the $0.036 of the typical town in New Brunswick; St. Stephen has $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Perth’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 36% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Perth.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Perth: 17% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Perth: 17% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Region 3 health region, Perth included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Perth’s area, at 17%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Perth, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go higher.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Neighbouring homes in Perth can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Perth
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Perth; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Perth, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Perth’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perth | Low | $0.043 | 17% | Yes |
| Perth-Andover 1,609 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.045 | 17% | Yes |
| Tobique 20 1,042 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.040 | 17% | Yes |
| Kent 2,028 · 18 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
Perth-Andover burns a little more than Perth, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Perth faces
What to do about the hazards Perth faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Perth floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Perth sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Perth’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Perth.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Perth
How is Perth’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Perth grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Perth flood?
Perth’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Perth?
Around Perth, 112 survey homes were tested and 17% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Perth at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Perth since 1986 (last in 2013); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Perth?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Perth $0.043 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).