Cochise County, AZ

County Profile

125,566 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cochise County, AZ.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

42out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 2% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1227th of 1,255 counties19
Growth898th of 1,226 counties38
Housing affordability788th of 1,255 counties88
ClimateTop 45% of 1,254 counties70
Physical resilience1168th of 1,255 counties19
Access1123rd of 1,255 counties52
Economic stability1121st of 1,255 counties32
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 6.9% and the Opportunity signal places Cochise County in the bottom 2%.

406 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 2% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, wildfire and drought.

At a glance

Population
125,566
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$59,742
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
20/sq mi
6209.9 sq mi of land
Median age
43.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cochise County
Arizona
Metro area
Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ
Nearest major airport
TUS
71 mi · Tucson Intl
Median home value
$218,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.9% is lower than 3% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 6.1% over the past year, to 42,308 employed residents.

28% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 72% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,950$59,742Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$997$33,002Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.4%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.6 minBottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.1%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment42,308Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-7.9%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-6.1%Bottom 2%June 2026
Labor force45,431Top 49%June 2026
Labor force participation49.4%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.5%Top 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.9%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.93.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.9% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202460k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $59,742 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Cashiers1,150$31,570
Retail Salespersons1,060$33,140
General and Operations Managers1,040$78,740
Fast Food and Counter Workers740$30,580
Detectives and Criminal Investigators730$108,350
Stockers and Order Fillers690$36,530

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are 17.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
76
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Buena High SchoolSierra Vista Unified District (4175)1,71522.0
Douglas High SchoolDouglas Unified District (4174)1,28818.7
Benson Primary SchoolBenson Unified School District (79226)50718.8
Joyce Clark Middle SchoolSierra Vista Unified District (4175)46218.5
Tombstone High SchoolTombstone Unified District (4168)46117.1
Joe Carlson Elementary SchoolDouglas Unified District (4174)41025.6
Willcox High SchoolWillcox Unified District (4170)40817.7
Coronado Elementary SchoolPalominas Elementary School District 49 (4180)40416.2
Benson High SchoolBenson Unified School District (79226)40213.9
Leman Academy of Excellence-Sierra Vista · charterLeman Academy of Excellence Inc. (92730)39410.6
Stevenson Elementary SchoolDouglas Unified District (4174)39228.0
Paul H Huber Jr High SchoolDouglas Unified District (4174)38117.3

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Arizona’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $995 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$995
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$218,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.65Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.0%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±11559,666Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$49$995Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,622$218,300Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.0%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.6%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
38/ 100
Ranks 898 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 125,773 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 3.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
406
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.2
Top 46% nationally
Year over year
−2%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024126k125k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025506420
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (+5%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 11.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and about 13 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DOUGLAS BISBEE INL AP, 28.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation11.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100132024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing35°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
80
90th percentile index
Days above 100
13
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

19 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and drought.

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingElevated
DroughtModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, earthquake, strong wind, landslide, hurricane, winter weather, hail, tornado, cold wave.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Cochise County records 4.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 26.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.3 per 100,000 residents in Cochise County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
26.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
23.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
36.1
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cochise County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cochise County rather than Cochise County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 71 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Tucson IntlTUS71 mi10,996 ft
Deming MuniDMN124 mi8,018 ft
Mesa GatewayIWA149 mi10,401 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
42
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.