Erie, Colorado

Area Profile

33,808 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Erie, in Weld County.

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
OpportunityTop 22% of 3,904 cities measured70
Housing affordabilityTop 46% of 4,223 cities measured83
Climate3739th of 4,223 cities measured59
Physical resilienceTop 47% of 4,182 cities measured62
AccessTop 1% of 4,226 cities measured100
Economic stabilityTop 1% of 4,226 cities measured89
The quick read

Erie ranks in the top 22% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.9% and median household income of $173,349.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.

A major airport is 10 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
33,808
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$173,349
Top 3% nationally
Density
1,582/sq mi
21.4 sq mi of land
Median age
37.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Weld County
Colorado
Metro area
Greeley, CO
Nearest major airport
BJC
10 mi · Rocky Mountain Metro
Median home value
$736,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.7% over the past year, to 19,278 employed residents.

70% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 97% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$9,854$173,349Top 3%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,365$67,157Top 7%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate2.3%Bottom 13%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.9 minTop 44%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher69.6%Top 4%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,278Bottom 24%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.9%Top 6%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.7%Bottom 12%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force20,058Bottom 23%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation76.2%Top 7%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,780Bottom 42%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,070Top 34%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 47%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.72.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% 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
2021202220232024173k140k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $173,349 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 — Greeley, CO
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,670$33,030
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers2,700$59,450
Retail Salespersons2,650$36,670
Cashiers2,530$35,760
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers1,970$77,280
Stockers and Order Fillers1,670$44,560

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

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Erie High SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,72723.7
Soaring Heights PK-8St. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,21116.8
Erie Middle SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J76220.6
Meadowlark SchoolBoulder Valley School District No. Re274719.2
Black Rock ElementarySt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J59720.6
Red Hawk ElementarySt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J58818.4
Aspen Ridge Preparatory School · charterSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J58115.3
Highlands Elementary SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J52817.6
Erie Elementary SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J48617.4
Grand View ElementarySt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J44617.8

14.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

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 Colorado’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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 3% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $2,805 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
96.6

Prices here run about 3% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
19.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,805
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$736,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index96.6Bottom 33%of 3,6582023
Home price to income4.25Top 23%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate87.6%Top 26%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±35511,964Top 5%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$260$2,805Top 2%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$23,034$736,500Top 5%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.4%Top 44%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate1.8%Bottom 15%of 32,0012024 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 →

Population has grown 27% since 2020, reaching 38,594 in 2024.

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

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202439k30k
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
2020202120222023202420251k186
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−64%).

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

Weather & climate

5 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 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.4 inches, including 49.0 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 21 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 DENVER-STAPLETON, 21.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index87.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation15.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall49.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100212024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
87
90th percentile index
Days above 100
21
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

62 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, cold wave and hail.

HailElevated
TornadoHigh
WildfireElevated
Cold waveModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, strong wind, inland flooding, ice storm, volcanic activity, landslide, drought, avalanche.

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.

Violent crime
73
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
730
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Erie's police department reported 73 violent offences per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 730.

Weld 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 13.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.8 per 100,000 residents in Weld County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.5
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Erie’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Weld 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 Erie rather than Erie 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.

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

9 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rocky Mountain MetroBJC10 mi9,000 ft
Denver IntlDEN23 mi16,000 ft
Northern Colorado RgnlFNL28 mi8,500 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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Other cities in Greeley, CO

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GreeleyWeld County110,80657vs Erie
WindsorWeld County37,91469vs Erie
EvansWeld County22,39655vs Erie
JohnstownWeld County18,883vs Erie
FirestoneWeld County18,04968vs Erie
FrederickWeld County16,65165vs Erie
SeveranceWeld County10,13064vs Erie

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.

Compare

Put Erie side by side with a similar place.

Erie vs Castle RockErie vs Castle PinesErie vs WindsorErie vs The Pinery

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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 Erie

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8051639,048$168,725