31794Tifton, Georgia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 31794.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 42% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4773rd of 6,210 published ZIP areas41
Schools2550th of 4,422 published ZIP areas46
Growth4157th of 5,428 published ZIP areas34
Housing affordabilityTop 20% of 6,685 published ZIP areas96
ClimateTop 11% of 6,789 published ZIP areas83
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 6,709 published ZIP areas62
Access5929th of 6,791 published ZIP areas71
Economic stability6466th of 6,742 published ZIP areas24
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 3.5% and the Opportunity signal places 31794 in the bottom 23%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 55 units authorized over the past twelve months, 44% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 2.8 times it.

At a glance

Population
26,178
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$46,056
Bottom 11% nationally
Density
229/sq mi
114.5 sq mi of land
Median age
38.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Tifton
Georgia
Metro area
Tifton, GA
Nearest major airport
VLD
47 mi · Valdosta Rgnl
Median home value
$130,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 86% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 18,476 employed residents.

Median household income of $46,056 is below 89% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,099$46,056Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,186$26,768Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate25.6%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.6 minBottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.5%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,476Bottom 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.8%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force19,152Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force participation52.2%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 47%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202447k40k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $46,056 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Tifton, GA, the city containing this ZIP code.

27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% 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
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
27.3%
Bottom 48% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
27.0%
Bottom 35% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Tift County High SchoolTift County2,20717.5
Eighth Street Middle SchoolTift County88314.012%27%
Northeast Middle SchoolTift County73312.410%10%
G. O. Bailey Elementary SchoolTift County53115.245%33%
Len Lastinger Elementary SchoolTift County44814.049%42%
Charles Spencer Elementary SchoolTift County42813.824%21%
Northside Elementary SchoolTift County40512.732%21%
Matt Wilson Elementary SchoolTift County39813.732%35%
J. T. Reddick Elementary SchoolTift County33914.741%38%

96.7% 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 $766 takes 20% 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
20.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$766
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$130,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.82Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate54.1%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±50111,671Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$67$766Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$36,498$130,100Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.0%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.8%Top 44%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
34/ 100
Ranks 4157 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

At 3.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
55
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.2
Top 46% nationally
Year over year
−44%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
45.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Tifton, GA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

8 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 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.2 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TIFTON, 1.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation48.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing32°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

62 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, cold wave and drought.

HurricaneElevated
DroughtModerate
Cold waveHigh

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Tift County records 6.9 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 18.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.5 per 100,000 residents in Tift County.

Homicide
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.5
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 Tift 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 31794 rather than 31794 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 47 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Valdosta RgnlVLD47 mi8,003 ft
Tallahassee IntlTLH90 mi8,000 ft
Lake City GatewayLCQ102 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
58
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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
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.

31794 vs Tifton

How this ZIP area compares with Tifton as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

31794
Tifton
Median household income
$46,056
vs
$45,298
Per capita income
$26,768
vs
$25,191
Population density
229/sq mi
vs
1,324/sq mi
Median home value
$130,100
vs
$196,200
Median gross rent
$766
vs
$798
Homeownership rate
54.1%
vs
40.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.5%
vs
22.1%
Poverty rate
25.6%
vs
23.5%
Median age
38.5
vs
34.8

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.