Henry County, IN

County Profile

48,970 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Henry County, IN.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 46% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 25% of 1,255 counties measured68
Schools751st of 973 counties measured29
Growth759th of 1,226 counties measured44
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured100
Climate656th of 1,254 counties measured68
Physical resilienceTop 39% of 1,255 counties measured68
Access838th of 1,255 counties measured73
Economic stability931st of 1,255 counties measured45
The quick read

Henry County ranks in the top 25% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $63,150.

In the public schools here, 32% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.7 students for every teacher.

48 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 2% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
48,970
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,150
Bottom 45% nationally
Density
125/sq mi
391.9 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Henry County
Indiana
Metro area
New Castle, IN
Nearest major airport
IND
50 mi · Indianapolis Intl
Median home value
$154,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 83% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 22,091 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,842$63,150Bottom 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,500$32,182Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$48,566Bottom 17%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate13.6%Top 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.4 minTop 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.5%Bottom 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,091Bottom 28%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.8%Top 6%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 18%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force22,880Bottom 27%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation54.3%Bottom 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 17%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.32.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.4% 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
202120222023202463k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,150 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.

32% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
32.0%
Bottom 20% in Indiana
Reading proficiency
33.1%
Bottom 16% in Indiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
New Castle High SchoolNew Castle Community School Corp82811.5
Shenandoah Elementary SchoolShenandoah School Corporation63019.147%49%
New Castle Middle SchoolNew Castle Community School Corp62711.422%37%
Tri Junior-Senior High SchoolSouth Henry School Corp45814.35%15%
Shenandoah High SchoolShenandoah School Corporation40514.0
Knightstown Intermediate SchoolC A Beard Memorial School Corp38714.326%29%
Knightstown Elementary SchoolC A Beard Memorial School Corp37218.657%32%
Tri Elementary SchoolSouth Henry School Corp35816.337%23%
Blue River Valley Elementary SchBlue River Valley Schools33114.435%25%
Knightstown High SchoolC A Beard Memorial School Corp31812.2
Wilbur Wright Elementary SchoolNew Castle Community School Corp30513.331%38%
Shenandoah Middle SchoolShenandoah School Corporation29514.817%42%

50.8% 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 Indiana’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 $820 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.4 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
15.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$820
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$154,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.44Bottom 26%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.2%Top 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5420,996Top 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$29$820Bottom 39%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,343$154,400Bottom 33%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.6%Bottom 33%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.2%Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 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
44/ 100
Ranks 759 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 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 49,081 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 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
48
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 14% nationally
Year over year
+2%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202449k49k
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
20222023202420254734
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+32%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 34, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MUNCIE DELAWARE CO AP, 21.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index55.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation40.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index34.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing47°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
34
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
55
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoHigh
EarthquakeElevated
HailModerate
LightningModerate
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, inland flooding, winter weather, landslide, drought, hurricane, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Henry County records 2.9 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 14.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 24.5 per 100,000 residents in Henry County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
24.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
22.5
per 100,000 residents

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 Henry 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 Henry County rather than Henry 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 50 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Indianapolis IntlIND50 mi11,200 ft
James M Cox Dayton IntlDAY62 mi8,502 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG72 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
63
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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
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.

Cities in Henry County, IN