Macon-Bibb County, Georgia

Area Profile

156,578 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Macon-Bibb County, in Bibb County.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 47% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2078th of 3,904 published cities55
Schools2035th of 2,668 published cities31
Growth1902nd of 2,973 published cities43
Housing affordability2188th of 4,223 published cities79
ClimateTop 30% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilienceTop 17% of 4,182 published cities85
Access4051st of 4,226 published cities52
Economic stability4034th of 4,226 published cities27
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $51,234, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.3 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Macon-Bibb County in the top 17% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
156,578
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$51,234
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
628/sq mi
249.4 sq mi of land
Median age
36.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Bibb County
Georgia
Metro area
Macon-Bibb County, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
71 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$174,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 39% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.2% over the past year, to 61,319 employed residents.

Median household income of $51,234 is below 76% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,220$51,234Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,140$31,699Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate24.7%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.7 minBottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.3%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment61,319Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 28%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.2%Top 11%June 2026
Labor force64,245Top 46%June 2026
Labor force participation56.7%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$56,400Bottom 6%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$45,160Bottom 6%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.13.4
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
202120222023202451k44k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $51,234 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 — Macon-Bibb County, GA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses3,100$85,070
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand3,070$37,140
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,920$25,000
Retail Salespersons2,800$28,820
Cashiers2,300$27,820
General and Operations Managers1,910$90,500

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.

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
42
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.3%
Bottom 22% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
24.6%
Bottom 23% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Academy For Classical Education · charterState Specialty Schools II- Academy For Classical Education1,80813.567%66%
Howard High SchoolBibb County1,14515.7
Westside High SchoolBibb County1,01317.5
Howard Middle SchoolBibb County97314.722%37%
Rutland High SchoolBibb County92117.4
Weaver Middle SchoolBibb County89414.28%17%
Central High SchoolBibb County89215.6
Southwest High SchoolBibb County86016.5
Rutland Middle SchoolBibb County84915.48%32%
Northeast High SchoolBibb County79415.3
Veterans Elementary SchoolBibb County71514.33%11%
John Robert Lewis Elementary SchoolBibb County71215.14%7%

61.0% 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 $1,066 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 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
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,066
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$174,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.41Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate51.4%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±8971,962Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$25$1,066Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,468$174,500Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.0%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate16.7%Top 30%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
43/ 100
Ranks 1902 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 157,056 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 0.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
137
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.9
Bottom 28% nationally
Year over year
−8%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024157k156k
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
20202022202320242025157143
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−9%).

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 36°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and about 2 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 MACON MIDDLE GA RGNL AP, 8.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index65.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low36°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 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
65
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Bibb County records 22.4 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 30.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.7 per 100,000 residents in Bibb County.

Homicide
22.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
30.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.5
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 Bibb 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 Macon-Bibb County rather than Macon-Bibb 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 71 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL71 mi12,390 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS107 mi8,001 ft
Valdosta RgnlVLD142 mi8,003 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
60
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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
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 Macon-Bibb County

8 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3121033,288$78,44769
3120432,421$38,78455
3120624,310$30,04252
3121717,732$44,80956
3122016,494$88,43470
3121616,328$72,45264
3121115,868$49,20257
310529,001$84,84667