AreaProfile

Crestview, Florida

Area Profile

28,773 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Crestview, in Okaloosa County.

54
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2891st of 3,904 published cities45
SchoolsTop 44% of 2,668 published cities56
GrowthTop 33% of 2,973 published cities59
Housing affordability2800th of 4,223 published cities70
ClimateTop 26% of 4,223 published cities76
Physical resilience3661st of 4,182 published cities19
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 published cities98
Economic stability2133rd of 4,226 published cities60
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.7% and the Opportunity signal places Crestview in the bottom 26%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 213 units authorized over the past twelve months, 19% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane and landslide.

At a glance

Population
28,773
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,480
Bottom 48% nationally
Density
1,646/sq mi
17.5 sq mi of land
Median age
31.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Okaloosa County
Florida
Metro area
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL
Nearest major airport
CEW
4 mi · Bob Sikes
Median home value
$277,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 36% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 13,156 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,238$65,480Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,798$31,018Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.2%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.4 minTop 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.6%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,156Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 38%June 2026
Labor force13,801Bottom 9%June 2026
Labor force participation65.4%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$63,090Bottom 25%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,510Bottom 20%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 36%June 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 4.7% 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
202120222023202469k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,480 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 — Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons5,760$33,920
Waiters and Waitresses4,430$37,370
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,350$29,220
Cashiers3,090$31,000
General and Operations Managers3,020$100,070
Office Clerks, General2,560$46,060

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.

58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 60% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
58.3%
Top 36% in Florida
Reading proficiency
60.1%
Top 34% in Florida
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
CRESTVIEW HIGH SCHOOLOKALOOSA2,37624.2
DAVIDSON MIDDLE SCHOOLOKALOOSA1,11120.266%62%
RIVERSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA1,03218.157%57%
ANTIOCH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA93116.664%67%
SHOAL RIVER MIDDLE SCHOOLOKALOOSA92319.252%62%
WALKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA87517.552%55%
NORTHWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA81417.062%56%
BOB SIKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA79419.453%60%
SOUTHSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOLOKALOOSA26011.8
RICHBOURG SCHOOLOKALOOSA685.7
OKALOOSA REGIONAL DETENTIONOKALOOSA2814.0
EMERALD COAST CAREER INSTITUTE NOKALOOSA2713.5

57.1% 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 Florida’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 $1,366 takes 25% 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.

Rent as a share of income
25.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,366
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$277,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.24Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.3%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±48111,554Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$137$1,366Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,105$277,900Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.0%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.7%Bottom 32%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
59/ 100
Top 33% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 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 12% since 2020, reaching 30,727 in 2024.

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

At 7.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
213
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.4
Top 20% nationally
Year over year
−19%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k28k
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
20202022202320242025826139
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (−5%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 63.6 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CRESTVIEW BOB SIKES AP, 4.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation63.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing31°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

19 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane and landslide.

HurricaneHigh
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, tornado, heat wave, inland flooding, wildfire, strong wind, cold wave, coastal flooding, earthquake, winter weather, ice storm, hail, 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 4 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Bob SikesCEW4 mi8,006 ft
Northwest Florida Beaches IntlECP54 mi10,000 ft
Dothan RgnlDHN78 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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Area Score
54
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Other cities in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Fort Walton BeachOkaloosa County21,02548vs Crestview
NicevilleOkaloosa County16,54459vs Crestview
DestinOkaloosa County14,07755vs Crestview

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 Crestview side by side with a similar place.

Crestview vs MedullaCrestview vs HumbleCrestview vs CallawayCrestview vs Melbourne

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
2019-20 school year; 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 Crestview

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3253933,290$74,36956
3253625,599$78,11958