Lincoln County, NE

County Profile

33,802 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lincoln County, NE.

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.

72out of 100
Area Score
Top 17% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 9% of 1,255 counties80
SchoolsTop 29% of 973 counties68
GrowthTop 9% of 1,226 counties75
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate1128th of 1,254 counties55
Physical resilience845th of 1,255 counties48
AccessTop 27% of 1,255 counties90
Economic stabilityTop 40% of 1,255 counties68
The quick read

Lincoln County ranks in the top 9% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.9% and median household income of $65,148.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 262 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 143% on the prior year.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
33,802
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,148
Top 50% nationally
Density
13/sq mi
2564.2 sq mi of land
Median age
42.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lincoln County
Nebraska
Metro area
North Platte, NE
Nearest major airport
LBF
6 mi · North Platte Rgnl/Lee Bird Fld
Median home value
$189,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.9% is lower than 95% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 2.9% over the past year, to 18,621 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,966$65,148Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,444$35,420Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.4%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.0 minBottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.7%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,621Bottom 20%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.7%Top 6%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.9%Top 3%June 2026
Labor force19,174Bottom 19%June 2026
Labor force participation64.6%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.9%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.21.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.9% 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
202120222023202465k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,148 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.9%
Top 25% in Nebraska
Reading proficiency
48.5%
Top 42% in Nebraska
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
NORTH PLATTE HIGH SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS1,14516.8
ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS51312.242%42%
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS32916.436%35%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS31615.041%41%
HERSHEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHERSHEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS30014.342%47%
MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS26314.6
MCDONALD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS24719.064%68%
HERSHEY HIGH SCHOOLHERSHEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS23912.645%55%
WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS22616.145%52%
CODY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS22513.248%51%
EISENHOWER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNORTH PLATTE PUBLIC SCHOOLS21718.168%65%
SUTHERLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSUTHERLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS16416.469%62%

38.1% 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 Nebraska’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 $900 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$900
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$189,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.91Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.6%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±10416,624Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$44$900Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,482$189,500Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.6%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.4%Bottom 31%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
75/ 100
Top 9% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 fallen 4% since 2020, reaching 33,319 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

74% 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 7.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
262
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.8
Top 14% nationally
Year over year
+143%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
74.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202435k33k
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
202220232024202523746
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+415%).

Weather & climate

5 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 12°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 21.1 inches, including 29.6 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NORTH PLATTE RGNL AP, 6.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation21.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall29.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low12°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing49°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

48 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailHigh
Winter weatherModerate
WildfireModerate
TornadoModerate
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: drought, cold wave, landslide, earthquake, ice storm.

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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Lincoln County records 3.3 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 19.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.6 per 100,000 residents in Lincoln County.

Homicide
3.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
30.0
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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln County rather than Lincoln 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
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 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
North Platte Rgnl/Lee Bird FldLBF6 mi8,001 ft
Alliance MuniAIA127 mi9,203 ft
Scottsbluff/Western Nebraska Rgnl/Wm B Heilig FldBFF158 mi8,279 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
72
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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.

Cities in Lincoln County, NE