Mohave County, AZ

County Profile

220,517 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Mohave 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.

37out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 1% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1248th of 1,255 counties12
Growth839th of 1,226 counties40
Housing affordability1094th of 1,255 counties68
Climate1055th of 1,254 counties58
Physical resilience1147th of 1,255 counties22
Access947th of 1,255 counties67
Economic stability1168th of 1,255 counties26
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 6.9% and the Opportunity signal places Mohave County in the bottom 1%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 900 units authorized over the past twelve months, 64% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
220,517
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$57,684
Bottom 29% nationally
Density
17/sq mi
13332.1 sq mi of land
Median age
53.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mohave County
Arizona
Metro area
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
Nearest major airport
IFP
60 mi · Laughlin/Bullhead Intl
Median home value
$281,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 5.5% over the past year, to 79,966 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,429$57,684Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,099$35,963Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.1%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.1 minBottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.2%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment79,966Top 32%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 17%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-5.5%Bottom 3%June 2026
Labor force85,866Top 31%June 2026
Labor force participation44.5%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.7%Top 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.9%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.94.0
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
202120222023202458k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $57,684 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 — Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Cashiers2,650$32,510
General and Operations Managers2,170$74,050
Retail Salespersons2,130$34,610
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,960$31,100
Stockers and Order Fillers1,350$36,390
Office Clerks, General1,320$41,740

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 20.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
64
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
20.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lake Havasu High SchoolLake Havasu Unified District (4368)1,52321.8
Mohave High SchoolColorado River Union High School District (4381)1,06719.4
Lee Williams High SchoolKingman Unified School District (79598)99425.5
Kingman High SchoolKingman Unified School District (79598)87521.3
Hualapai ElementaryKingman Unified School District (79598)78121.1
Manzanita ElementaryKingman Unified School District (79598)75923.0
Thunderbolt Middle SchoolLake Havasu Unified District (4368)73422.2
Desert Star Academy · charterDesert Star Academy (92302)68662.4
Cerbat ElementaryKingman Unified School District (79598)67718.8
Kingman Middle SchoolKingman Unified School District (79598)65121.7
Starline Elementary SchoolLake Havasu Unified District (4368)62920.3
White Cliffs Middle SchoolKingman Unified School District (79598)59222.8

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 $1,091 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,091
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$281,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.87Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.1%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±136121,881Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$28$1,091Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,877$281,000Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.7%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate16.3%Top 41%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
40/ 100
Ranks 839 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 grown 6% since 2020, reaching 226,479 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 4.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
900
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.1
Top 37% nationally
Year over year
−64%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024226k214k
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
20222023202420253k2k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−11%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 99°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 19, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station KINGMAN MOHAVE CO AP, 33.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index30.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation8.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high99°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index19.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
19
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
30
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

22 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Heat waveModerate
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Volcanic activityModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, strong wind, ice storm, avalanche, landslide, hail, drought, 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.

Mohave County records 4.7 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 27.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 39.3 per 100,000 residents in Mohave County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.7
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
39.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
33.1
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 Mohave 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 Mohave County rather than Mohave 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 60 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Laughlin/Bullhead IntlIFP60 mi8,501 ft
Harry Reid IntlLAS82 mi14,835 ft
Lake Havasu CityHII86 mi8,000 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
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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.