Richmond County, GA

County Profile

206,069 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Richmond County, GA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

61out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 47% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity647th of 1,255 counties measured55
Schools834th of 973 counties measured22
Growth698th of 1,226 counties measured46
Housing affordability915th of 1,255 counties measured83
ClimateTop 27% of 1,254 counties measured74
Physical resilienceTop 24% of 1,255 counties measured78
AccessTop 6% of 1,255 counties measured98
Economic stability1012th of 1,255 counties measured40
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $55,637, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Richmond County in the top 24% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
206,069
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$55,637
Bottom 25% nationally
Density
635/sq mi
324.3 sq mi of land
Median age
35.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Richmond County
Georgia
Metro area
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
Nearest major airport
AGS
6 mi · Augusta Rgnl At Bush Fld
Median home value
$178,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 34% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 2.3% over the past year, to 83,175 employed residents.

Median household income of $55,637 is below 75% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,844$55,637Bottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$949$31,825Bottom 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate20.0%Top 17%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.7 minBottom 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.5%Top 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment83,175Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.0%Top 20%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.3%Top 5%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force87,228Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation62.4%Top 30%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 26%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 34%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.13.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.6% 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
202120222023202456k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $55,637 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 — Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,710$26,620
Retail Salespersons6,930$29,350
Registered Nurses6,880$87,760
Cashiers6,040$28,310
General and Operations Managers4,230$102,360
Home Health and Personal Care Aides3,920$28,730

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.

16% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
50
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
16.5%
Bottom 12% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
24.9%
Bottom 18% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Academy of Richmond County High SchoolRichmond County1,17818.1
Cross Creek High SchoolRichmond County1,15218.3
Westside High SchoolRichmond County1,08819.8
Hephzibah High SchoolRichmond County1,04116.8
Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics · charterState Specialty Schools I- Georgia School for Innovation and1,01514.341%42%
Butler High SchoolRichmond County87817.2
Glenn Hills High SchoolRichmond County83917.5
Pine Hill Middle SchoolRichmond County75715.88%27%
Davidson Fine Arts MagnetRichmond County74717.410%98%
Laney High SchoolRichmond County73617.1
Hephzibah Middle SchoolRichmond County72817.812%27%
Lake Forest Hills Elementary SchoolRichmond County71914.731%43%

93.0% 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 $1,141 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,141
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$178,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.21Top 41%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate51.2%Bottom 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±10593,145Top 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$22$1,141Top 20%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,336$178,500Bottom 48%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.6%Top 5%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.7%Top 35%of 3,2222024 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
46/ 100
Ranks 698 of 1,226 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 206,303 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 2.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
544
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.6
Bottom 46% nationally
Year over year
−1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024207k205k
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
202020212022202320242025772485
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−16%).

Weather & climate

7 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 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.1 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and one day a year passes 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 AUGUSTA BUSH FLD AP, 6.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index69.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation44.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing35°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
69
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

78 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LightningModerate
Ice stormModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneElevated
LandslideModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Richmond County records 13.1 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 24.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 30.2 per 100,000 residents in Richmond County.

Homicide
13.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
24.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
30.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.5
per 100,000 residents

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 Richmond 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 Richmond County rather than Richmond County 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS6 mi8,001 ft
Columbia MetroCAE68 mi8,601 ft
Donaldson FldGYH98 mi8,000 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
61
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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
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.

Cities in Richmond County, GA