AreaProfile

Longmont, Colorado

Area Profile

99,406 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Longmont, in Boulder County.

55
Area Score
Bottom 30% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2636th of 3,904 published cities48
GrowthTop 29% of 2,973 published cities62
Housing affordability3553rd of 4,223 published cities56
Climate4216th of 4,223 published cities42
Physical resilience2293rd of 4,182 published cities53
AccessTop 36% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stabilityTop 26% of 4,226 published cities71
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 1,572 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 57% on the prior year.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles, with rent taking 24% of median household income.

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
99,406
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$90,671
Top 24% nationally
Density
3,397/sq mi
29.3 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Boulder County
Colorado
Metro area
Boulder, CO
Nearest major airport
BJC
18 mi · Rocky Mountain Metro
Median home value
$572,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 59% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.1% over the past year, to 53,461 employed residents.

47% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,975$90,671Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,723$49,333Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.6%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.3 minBottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher47.0%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment53,461Top 48%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.6%Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.1%Bottom 7%June 2026
Labor force55,769Top 49%June 2026
Labor force participation68.7%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,760Top 9%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$69,580Top 9%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 41%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.92.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.1% 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
202120222023202491k83k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $90,671 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 — Boulder, CO
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Software Developers7,130$164,560
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,880$36,190
Retail Salespersons4,880$38,700
Business Operations Specialists, All Other3,610$94,040
Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel3,230$99,990
Registered Nurses3,140$103,290

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

Public schools
28
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Niwot High SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,50923.6
Longmont High SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,26820.5
Silver Creek High SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,20823.2
Skyline High SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J1,08218.7
Twin Peaks Classical Academy · charterSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J87915.4
Flagstaff Charter Academy · charterSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J72513.2
Altona Middle SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J71518.8
Westview Middle SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J62118.8
Blue Mountain ElementarySt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J54217.5
Fall River Elementary SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J52018.6
Trail Ridge Middle SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J43515.0
Eagle Crest Elementary SchoolSt. Vrain Valley School District No. Re1J42116.2

42.5% 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 →

Median rent of $1,816 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,816
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$572,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.32Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.5%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±88443,528Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$34$1,816Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,772$572,800Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.0%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.2%Bottom 20%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
62/ 100
Top 29% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 4 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 1% since 2020, reaching 99,818 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 4 consecutive years.

90% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 15.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1,572
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
15.8
Top 6% nationally
Year over year
+57%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
89.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024100k99k
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
2020202120222023202420251k621
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+40%).

Weather & climate

1 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 68°F and January a low of 12°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 33.9 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BOULDER 14 W, 25.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation33.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low12°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high68°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months11991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

53 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
WildfireElevated
TornadoElevated
Inland floodingModerate
AvalancheModerate
EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, landslide, strong wind, ice storm, cold wave, volcanic activity, heat wave, drought.

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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

9 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rocky Mountain MetroBJC18 mi9,000 ft
Northern Colorado RgnlFNL20 mi8,500 ft
Greeley-Weld CountyGXY31 mi10,000 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
55
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Other cities in Boulder, CO

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BoulderBoulder County106,43344vs Longmont
LafayetteBoulder County30,60258vs Longmont
LouisvilleBoulder County20,78658vs Longmont
SuperiorBoulder County13,30565vs Longmont
GunbarrelBoulder County10,051vs Longmont

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 Longmont side by side with a similar place.

Longmont vs AuroraLongmont vs EnterpriseLongmont vs DenverLongmont vs Gunbarrel

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)
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

Profile recalculated August 29, 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 Longmont

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8050144,147$80,91155
8050335,846$113,62058