Clarkston, Georgia

Area Profile

14,557 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Clarkston, in DeKalb County.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 23% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 28% of 3,904 published cities67
Schools2388th of 2,668 published cities20
Growth2612th of 2,973 published cities25
Housing affordability4139th of 4,223 published cities34
ClimateTop 21% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilienceTop 35% of 4,182 published cities71
Access2840th of 4,226 published cities87
Economic stability3602nd of 4,226 published cities38
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 6 units authorized over the past twelve months, 65% below the prior year.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 35% of median household income and the median home is 6.2 times it.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
14,557
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$48,564
Bottom 21% nationally
Density
7,890/sq mi
1.8 sq mi of land
Median age
27.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
DeKalb County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
16 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$302,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 84% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.4% over the past year, to 394,028 employed residents.

Median household income of $48,564 is below 79% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,323$48,564Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,915$19,779Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate34.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.2 minTop 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.6%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment394,028Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 29%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.4%Top 9%June 2026
Labor force408,452Top 19%June 2026
Labor force participation70.1%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,900Top 38%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,170Bottom 49%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 41%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202451k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $48,564 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 — Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons84,970$32,850
Fast Food and Counter Workers80,730$27,780
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand78,460$39,020
General and Operations Managers69,320$111,410
Customer Service Representatives59,990$42,710
Registered Nurses56,460$100,490

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for DeKalb County, GA, which contains this city.

9% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 12% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
9.4%
Bottom 5% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
12.3%
Bottom 1% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Clarkston High SchoolDeKalb County1,44113.5
Indian Creek Elementary SchoolDeKalb County96712.914%15%
Jolly Elementary SchoolDeKalb County79014.94%9%
Atlanta Area School for the DeafState Schools1103.3

97.9% 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 Georgia’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 $1,422 takes 35% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
35.1%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,422
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$302,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.23Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate18.3%Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3384,892Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$1,422Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$29,797$302,600Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income35.1%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate19.3%Top 25%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
25/ 100
Ranks 2612 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 14,416 in 2024.

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

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

At 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
6
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 19% nationally
Year over year
−65%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k14k
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
20202022202320242025192.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−68%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 51.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and about 6 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 ATLANTA PEACHTREE AP, 5.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation51.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10062024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
6
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

71 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LightningModerate
HailModerate
TornadoModerate
Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, strong wind, cold wave, heat wave, hurricane, winter weather, wildfire, 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.

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.

DeKalb County records 13.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.4 per 100,000 residents in DeKalb County.

Homicide
13.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.7
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 DeKalb 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 Clarkston rather than Clarkston 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL16 mi12,390 ft
Donaldson FldGYH125 mi8,000 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS135 mi8,001 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
53
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Other cities in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
AtlantaFulton County505,26871vs Clarkston
South FultonFulton County110,47168vs Clarkston
Sandy SpringsFulton County107,08778vs Clarkston
RoswellFulton County92,62180vs Clarkston
Johns CreekFulton County81,98876vs Clarkston
MabletonCobb County77,678vs Clarkston
AlpharettaFulton County66,85584vs Clarkston
MariettaCobb County62,26372vs Clarkston
StonecrestDeKalb County60,50160vs Clarkston
BrookhavenDeKalb County57,85573vs Clarkston
SmyrnaCobb County56,63374vs Clarkston
DunwoodyDeKalb County51,75874vs Clarkston

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
2019-20 school year; 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 Clarkston

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3002127,781$52,27854