Fairburn, Georgia

Area Profile

16,831 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fairburn, in Fulton County.

80out of 100
Area Score
Top 2% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 3,904 published cities81
GrowthTop 31% of 2,973 published cities61
Housing affordabilityTop 15% of 4,223 published cities97
ClimateTop 29% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilienceTop 15% of 4,182 published cities86
Access2458th of 4,226 published cities90
Economic stability2202nd of 4,226 published cities60
The quick read

Fairburn ranks in the top 7% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $91,897.

Residential permitting has slowed: 69 units authorized over the past twelve months, 30% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Fairburn in the top 15% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
16,831
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,897
Top 24% nationally
Density
998/sq mi
16.9 sq mi of land
Median age
35.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Fulton County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
11 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$271,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 80% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.3% over the past year, to 586,354 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,388$91,897Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,068$37,135Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.5%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute36.4 minTop 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.5%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment586,354Top 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.9%Top 24%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.3%Top 10%June 2026
Labor force608,083Top 11%June 2026
Labor force participation73.7%Top 11%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)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 20%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202492k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,897 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 Fulton County, GA, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,479 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
19.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,479
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$271,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.96Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.2%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6086,479Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$122$1,479Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,439$271,800Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.3%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.1%Bottom 34%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
61/ 100
Top 31% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 4% since 2020, reaching 17,267 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward 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 4.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
69
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.1
Top 35% nationally
Year over year
−30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
2020202220232024202529238
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−8%).

Weather & climate

6 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 36°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 50.4 inches, including 2.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 50, in the Good band, and about 4 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 HARTSFIELD INTL AP, 10.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation50.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low36°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
50
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

86 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, inland flooding, hail, strong wind, heat wave, ice storm, cold 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.

Fulton 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 19.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.5 per 100,000 residents in Fulton County.

Homicide
13.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.1
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 Fulton 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 Fairburn rather than Fairburn 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 11 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL11 mi12,390 ft
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth IntlBHM125 mi12,007 ft
Montgomery Rgnl (Dannelly Fld)MGM136 mi9,020 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
80
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Other cities in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

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

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 Fairburn side by side with a similar place.

Fairburn vs LibertyFairburn vs HallsFairburn vs ClaytonFairburn vs Plainfield

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
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.