AreaProfile

Richmond, Indiana

Area Profile

35,581 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Richmond, in Wayne County.

55
Area Score
Bottom 30% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2403rd of 3,904 published cities51
Schools2243rd of 2,668 published cities24
Growth2098th of 2,973 published cities38
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 4,223 published cities91
Climate3073rd of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 4,182 published cities63
Access3197th of 4,226 published cities82
Economic stability4039th of 4,226 published cities27
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 29 units authorized over the past twelve months, 87% below the prior year.

Its Area Score of 55 places Richmond in the top 70% of published city profiles.

At a glance

Population
35,581
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,399
Bottom 16% nationally
Density
1,467/sq mi
24.3 sq mi of land
Median age
38.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wayne County
Indiana
Metro area
Richmond, IN
Nearest major airport
DAY
36 mi · James M Cox Dayton Intl
Median home value
$114,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 55% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 15,121 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,399 is below 84% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,559$45,399Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,740$28,724Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate25.4%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.0 minBottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher20.1%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,121Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 38%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 29%June 2026
Labor force15,786Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force participation55.5%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.32.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% 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
202120222023202446k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,399 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.

23% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.5%
Bottom 12% in Indiana
Reading proficiency
27.3%
Bottom 15% in Indiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Richmond High SchoolRichmond Community Schools1,27315.3
Dennis Middle SchoolRichmond Community Schools64913.810%25%
Test Intermediate SchoolRichmond Community Schools62113.515%30%
Crestdale Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools37312.032%34%
Charles Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools35917.159%44%
Vaile Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools31112.019%25%
Starr Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools28415.825%11%
Fairview Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools25910.820%20%
Westview Elementary SchoolRichmond Community Schools25812.925%25%
Excel Center - Richmond · charterExcel Center - Richmond23926.6

61.7% 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 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 $822 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$822
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$114,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.52Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.2%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±33217,312Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$822Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,111$114,400Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.7%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.2%Top 36%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
38/ 100
Ranks 2098 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 35,561 in 2024.

At 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
29
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 27% nationally
Year over year
−87%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
58.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202436k36k
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
2020202120222023202420252302.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+3186%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 85°F and January a low of 20°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.9 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RICHMOND WTR WKS, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation42.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing46°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

63 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind.

TornadoHigh
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate
Cold waveModerate
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 36 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
James M Cox Dayton IntlDAY36 mi8,502 ft
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG55 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN65 mi10,701 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
55
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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)
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 29, 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 Richmond

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4737444,615$50,76657