Stoughton's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Stoughton is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Stoughton ranks above 20% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 20th percentile.

How Stoughton compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.039g, short-period spectral response 0.079g, 1-second spectral response 0.05g. Among 157 Wisconsin cities in this dataset, Stoughton ranks 30 for seismic hazard, the 81th percentile within the state. About 13,134 people live in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Retrofit economics for Stoughton

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

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Stoughton address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Stoughton'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.