Hopkins's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Hopkins in Seismic Design Category A: Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. That puts Hopkins in the 5th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 5% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Hopkins sits in Minnesota

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.023g, short-period spectral response 0.048g, 1-second spectral response 0.029g. Among 155 Minnesota cities in this dataset, Hopkins ranks 71 for seismic hazard, the 55th percentile within the state. About 19,462 people live in Hopkins, Minnesota.

Retrofit economics for Hopkins

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Minnesota. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Earthquake insurance for a Hopkins home

Outside California, earthquake coverage is typically sold as an endorsement added to a standard homeowners policy, not a separate product - worth asking about directly when getting a home-insurance quote for a Hopkins address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Hopkins's numbers. The guide to what a Seismic Design Category actually means covers why a category is never a substitute for an engineer's assessment of one specific house.