85648Rio Rico, Arizona

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 85648.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5585th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured31
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured85
ClimateTop 24% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured77
Physical resilience5235th of 6,709 ZIP areas measured27
Access6016th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured69
Economic stability4277th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured52
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 7.5% and the Opportunity signal places 85648 in the bottom 10%.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.7 times that income.

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

At a glance

Population
22,118
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,519
Bottom 32% nationally
Density
103/sq mi
215.4 sq mi of land
Median age
34.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Rio Rico
Arizona
Metro area
Nogales, AZ
Nearest major airport
TUS
43 mi · Tucson Intl
Median home value
$224,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.5% is lower than 2% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 19,311 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,324$61,519Bottom 32%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,667$26,213Bottom 16%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.5%Top 27%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.7 minTop 39%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.2%Bottom 47%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,311Bottom 18%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 31%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.5%Bottom 34%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force20,873Bottom 19%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation63.8%Top 37%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 7%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate7.5%Top 2%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,519 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Rio Rico, AZ, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 22.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Rio Rico High SchoolSanta Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)1,39724.9
Calabasas SchoolSanta Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)91722.4
Coatimundi Middle SchoolSanta Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)49723.7
Mountain View SchoolSanta Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)40619.3
San Cayetano Elementary SchoolSanta Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)39520.8

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 21% 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
21.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,091
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$224,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.66Top 35%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate85.1%Top 31%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3617,604Top 21%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$64$1,091Top 44%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,842$224,900Top 49%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.3%Top 28%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.8%Bottom 22%of 33,0282024 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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

8 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 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 14.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and about 9 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 NOGALES INTL AP, 10.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index72.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation14.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10092024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
72
90th percentile index
Days above 100
9
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

27 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingElevated
LandslideModerate
AvalancheModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, drought, earthquake, winter weather, hurricane, hail, tornado.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Santa Cruz County records 3.6 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 11.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 26.4 per 100,000 residents in Santa Cruz County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
26.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.3
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 Santa Cruz 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 85648 rather than 85648 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 43 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Tucson IntlTUS43 mi10,996 ft
Mesa GatewayIWA131 mi10,401 ft
Phoenix Sky Harbor IntlPHX146 mi11,489 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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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
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.

85648 vs Rio Rico

How this ZIP area compares with Rio Rico as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

85648
Rio Rico
Median household income
$61,519
vs
$61,348
Per capita income
$26,213
vs
$26,148
Population density
103/sq mi
vs
349/sq mi
Median home value
$224,900
vs
$224,100
Median gross rent
$1,091
vs
$1,091
Homeownership rate
85.1%
vs
85.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
22.2%
vs
22.1%
Poverty rate
16.5%
vs
16.6%
Median age
34.7
vs
34.6

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.