Riverdale, Georgia

Area Profile

14,792 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Riverdale, in Clayton County.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 48% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 50% of 3,904 published cities56
Schools2608th of 2,668 published cities11
GrowthTop 23% of 2,973 published cities66
Housing affordabilityTop 47% of 4,223 published cities82
ClimateTop 29% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 4,182 published cities67
Access2312th of 4,226 published cities90
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 4,226 published cities64
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $63,455, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 82 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 310% on the prior year.

A major airport is 5 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
14,792
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,455
Bottom 45% nationally
Density
3,369/sq mi
4.4 sq mi of land
Median age
37.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Clayton County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
5 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$178,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.3% over the past year, to 140,730 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$18,941$63,455Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,057$30,569Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.4%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.5 minTop 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.3%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment140,730Top 34%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.3%Top 10%June 2026
Labor force147,224Top 34%June 2026
Labor force participation72.0%Top 13%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 44%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,455 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 Clayton County, GA, which contains this city.

7% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 20% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.3 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
7.1%
Bottom 1% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
19.6%
Bottom 7% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Charles R. Drew High SchoolClayton County1,70817.8
Riverdale High SchoolClayton County1,35919.4
Dubois Integrity Academy · charterState Specialty Schools I- Dubois Integrity Academy1,34119.46%24%
Sequoyah Middle SchoolClayton County76515.38%22%
Church Street Elementary SchoolClayton County70616.85%5%
Harper Elementary SchoolClayton County69013.0
Riverdale Middle SchoolClayton County56013.35%25%
Riverdale Elementary SchoolClayton County55913.011%15%
Pointe South Elementary SchoolClayton County50813.410%24%

99.4% 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 $1,360 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
25.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,360
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$178,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.82Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate50.2%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4856,143Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$70$1,360Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,437$178,800Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.7%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 35%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
66/ 100
Top 23% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 14,586 in 2024.

100% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 5.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
82
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.5
Top 27% nationally
Year over year
+310%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
100.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k15k
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
20202022202320242025470.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

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 45, in the Good band, and about 3 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, 4.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 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 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index45.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
45
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

67 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoElevated
LightningModerate
EarthquakeModerate

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

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.

Clayton County records 9.4 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 14.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.1 per 100,000 residents in Clayton County.

Homicide
9.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.1
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 Clayton 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 Riverdale rather than Riverdale 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 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL5 mi12,390 ft
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth IntlBHM135 mi12,007 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS142 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
61
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Other cities in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

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

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 Riverdale

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3027434,081$52,20958