Prescott, Arizona

Area Profile

47,400 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Prescott, in Yavapai County.

40out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 1% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3736th of 3,904 published cities27
Growth1501st of 2,973 published cities50
Housing affordability3838th of 4,223 published cities48
Climate2385th of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilience3731st of 4,182 published cities16
Access3743rd of 4,226 published cities69
Economic stability3752nd of 4,226 published cities35
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.4% and the Opportunity signal places Prescott in the bottom 4%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 332 units authorized over the past twelve months, 52% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
47,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$70,874
Top 45% nationally
Density
963/sq mi
49.2 sq mi of land
Median age
59.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Yavapai County
Arizona
Metro area
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ
Nearest major airport
FLG
58 mi · Flagstaff Pulliam
Median home value
$564,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.4% is lower than 5% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 4.8% over the past year, to 17,054 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,899$70,874Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,854$50,060Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.7%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.0 minBottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.9%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,054Bottom 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.5%Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-4.8%Bottom 2%June 2026
Labor force18,216Bottom 20%June 2026
Labor force participation43.3%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,700Bottom 11%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,330Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.5%Top 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.4%Top 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.43.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.4% 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
202120222023202471k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $70,874 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 — Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers2,890$78,400
Retail Salespersons2,570$35,290
Cashiers2,470$34,350
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,080$33,350
Waiters and Waitresses1,840$36,670
Office Clerks, General1,660$45,760

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 15.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
18
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Prescott High SchoolPrescott Unified District (4466)1,49724.5
BASIS Prescott · charterBASIS Charter Schools Inc. (92320)61013.9
Prescott Mile High Middle SchoolPrescott Unified District (4466)48217.9
Taylor Hicks SchoolPrescott Unified District (4466)37013.7
Tri-City College Prep · charterMary Ellen Halvorson Educational Foundation. dba: (10965)27813.9
Lincoln Elementary SchoolPrescott Unified District (4466)27515.3
Skyview School · charterSkyview School Inc. (4496)21413.4
Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy · charterCompass Points International Inc (90533)1437.9
La Tierra Community School · charterLa Tierra Community School Inc (90900)13510.4
Mountain Oak Charter School · charterMountain Oak Charter School Inc. (78873)945.9
Willow Creek Charter School · charterPainted Pony Ranch Charter School (10967)7114.2
MICTED - Yavapai College CTECMountain Institute CTED #2 (90090)70

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 $1,395 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
8.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,395
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$564,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income7.96Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.0%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±65925,683Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$74$1,395Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,495$564,100Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.6%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.3%Top 45%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
50/ 100
Ranks 1501 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 5% since 2020, reaching 48,224 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

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

At 7.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
332
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.0
Top 21% nationally
Year over year
−52%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202448k46k
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
202020212022202320242025686233
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+63%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 12.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and about 2 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PRESCOTT LOVE FLD, 4.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation12.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
80
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

16 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, hail, landslide, volcanic activity, strong wind, tornado, drought, cold wave.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Yavapai County records 2.5 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 26.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.5 per 100,000 residents in Yavapai County.

Homicide
2.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
26.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
38.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Yavapai 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 Prescott rather than Prescott 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Flagstaff PulliamFLG58 mi8,800 ft
Phoenix Deer ValleyDVT66 mi8,196 ft
ScottsdaleSDL74 mi8,249 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
40
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Other cities in Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Prescott ValleyYavapai County49,17944vs Prescott
Chino ValleyYavapai County13,60241vs Prescott
CottonwoodYavapai County12,58042vs Prescott
Camp VerdeYavapai County12,52140vs Prescott
Verde VillageYavapai County11,930vs Prescott

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Prescott

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8630127,076$72,65240
8630319,446$72,35940