St. Marys, Georgia

Area Profile

19,166 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for St. Marys, in Camden County.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 12% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 9% of 3,904 published cities79
SchoolsTop 5% of 2,668 published cities88
GrowthTop 2% of 2,973 published cities83
Housing affordabilityTop 44% of 4,223 published cities84
ClimateTop 8% of 4,223 published cities88
Physical resilience3283rd of 4,182 published cities26
AccessTop 46% of 4,226 published cities93
Economic stability3500th of 4,226 published cities40
The quick read

St. Marys ranks in the top 9% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $74,288.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 241 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 61% on the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, coastal flooding and wildfire.

At a glance

Population
19,166
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$74,288
Top 40% nationally
Density
751/sq mi
25.5 sq mi of land
Median age
33.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Camden County
Georgia
Metro area
Kingsland, GA
Nearest major airport
JAX
19 mi · Jacksonville Intl
Median home value
$312,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 23,529 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,419$74,288Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,653$37,015Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.4%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.0 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.3%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,529Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.8%Top 10%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 16%June 2026
Labor force24,354Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force participation56.9%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 13%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202474k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $74,288 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Camden County, GA, which contains this city.

64% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
64.0%
Top 4% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
58.9%
Top 7% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Saint Marys Middle SchoolCamden County1,07715.462%67%
Sugarmill ElementaryCamden County65114.267%60%
Saint Marys Elementary SchoolCamden County62315.667%51%
Crooked River Elementary SchoolCamden County61113.962%55%
Mary Lee Clark Elementary SchoolCamden County48015.063%53%

48.3% 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 $1,183 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,183
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$312,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.20Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.1%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3628,031Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$85$1,183Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$21,570$312,300Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 41%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
83/ 100
Top 2% 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 9% since 2020, reaching 20,119 in 2024.

At 12.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
241
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
12.6
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
+61%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
26.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k19k
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
20202022202320242025306134
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−12%).

Weather & climate

9 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 43°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.2 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BRUNSWICK 23 S, 7.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation47.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low43°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing29°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

26 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, coastal flooding and wildfire.

HurricaneHigh
WildfireElevated
Coastal floodingElevated

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

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.

Camden County records 4.0 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 18.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.4 per 100,000 residents in Camden County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.5
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 Camden 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 St. Marys rather than St. Marys 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Jacksonville IntlJAX19 mi10,000 ft
Brunswick Golden IslesBQK35 mi8,001 ft
St AugustineSGJ57 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
73
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Other cities in Kingsland, GA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
KingslandCamden County19,62771vs St. Marys

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
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

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 St. Marys

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3155822,591$74,26872