Norcross, Georgia

Area Profile

18,007 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Norcross, in Gwinnett County.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 37% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 6% of 3,904 cities measured81
Schools1931st of 2,668 cities measured34
GrowthTop 34% of 2,973 cities measured59
Housing affordability3651st of 4,223 cities measured54
ClimateTop 21% of 4,223 cities measured78
Physical resilienceTop 47% of 4,182 cities measured61
Access3220th of 4,226 cities measured81
Economic stabilityTop 48% of 4,226 cities measured61
The quick read

Norcross ranks in the top 6% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $75,266.

In the public schools here, 22% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.9 students for every teacher.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.4 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 27% of it.

At a glance

Population
18,007
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,266
Top 39% nationally
Density
2,933/sq mi
6.1 sq mi of land
Median age
36.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Gwinnett County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
24 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$403,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 87% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.2% over the past year, to 512,145 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$12,193$75,266Top 39%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,498$41,434Top 30%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.2%Top 35%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.6 minTop 31%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.5%Top 18%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment512,145Top 13%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.6%Top 17%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.2%Top 11%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force529,962Top 13%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation72.0%Top 14%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,900Top 38%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,170Bottom 49%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 13%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k70k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,266 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 Gwinnett County, GA, which contains this city.

22% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 22% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.4%
Bottom 27% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
22.1%
Bottom 16% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Meadowcreek High SchoolGwinnett County2,60913.9
Paul Duke STEM High SchoolGwinnett County1,50918.2
Summerour Middle SchoolGwinnett County1,31912.117%27%
Graves Elementary SchoolGwinnett County1,07612.824%19%
Rockbridge Elementary SchoolGwinnett County99012.520%15%
Beaver Ridge Elementary SchoolGwinnett County98412.925%21%
Baldwin ElementaryGwinnett County91412.425%24%
Meadowcreek Elementary SchoolGwinnett County80611.217%17%
Stripling Elementary SchoolGwinnett County79911.423%23%
Norcross Elementary SchoolGwinnett County75112.125%24%
Brookhaven Innovation Academy · charterState Specialty Schools II- Brookhaven Innovation Academy52413.428%34%
Gwinnett Intervention Education Center (GIVE) WestGwinnett County2276.1

80.0% 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 $1,715 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
27.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,715
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$403,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.36Top 13%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.9%Bottom 20%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4617,846Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$52$1,715Top 15%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$33,272$403,400Top 18%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.3%Top 11%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.8%Bottom 32%of 32,0012024 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 34% 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 8% since 2020, reaching 18,902 in 2024.

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

At 1.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
20
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.1
Bottom 33% nationally
Year over year
+400%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k18k
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
202020222023202420252863.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−96%).

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 53, 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 ATLANTA PEACHTREE AP, 7.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index70.02024 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 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
53
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
70
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

61 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LightningModerate
HailModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Gwinnett County records 5.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.4 per 100,000 residents in Gwinnett County.

Homicide
5.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.7
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 Gwinnett 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 Norcross rather than Norcross 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 24 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL24 mi12,390 ft
Donaldson FldGYH119 mi8,000 ft
Mc Ghee TysonTYS130 mi10,000 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
64
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Other cities in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

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

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 Norcross

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3009346,410$48,40457
3007125,830$64,51562