Dayton, Nevada

Area Profile

15,781 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dayton, in Lyon County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 32% of 3,904 cities measured65
Schools2059th of 2,668 cities measured30
Housing affordabilityTop 40% of 4,223 cities measured86
Climate2876th of 4,223 cities measured64
Physical resilience3805th of 4,182 cities measured13
Access2282nd of 4,226 cities measured91
Economic stabilityTop 38% of 4,226 cities measured66
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $102,819, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

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

A major airport is 20 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
15,781
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$102,819
Top 17% nationally
Density
452/sq mi
34.9 sq mi of land
Median age
44.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lyon County
Nevada
Metro area
Reno, NV
Nearest major airport
RNO
20 mi · Reno/Tahoe Intl
Median home value
$433,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 28,540 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,447$102,819Top 17%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,126$41,367Top 30%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.2%Bottom 25%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.9 minTop 22%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher20.1%Bottom 49%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,540Bottom 37%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.5%Top 18%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 28%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force29,855Bottom 37%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation60.6%Top 50%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,520Bottom 29%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,660Bottom 39%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024103k75k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $102,819 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.
Largest occupations — Reno, NV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand8,960$43,990
Stockers and Order Fillers8,230$38,020
General and Operations Managers7,930$106,050
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators7,550$49,050
Retail Salespersons7,020$35,160
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,900$31,530

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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

22% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 19.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.4%
Bottom 33% in Nevada
Reading proficiency
35.6%
Bottom 33% in Nevada
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Dayton High SchoolLyon74822.7
Riverview Elementary SchoolLyon45216.717%30%
Dayton Elementary SchoolLyon45116.722%34%
Sutro Elementary SchoolLyon42617.834%38%
Dayton Intermediate SchoolLyon35622.317%42%

100.0% 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 Nevada’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 $1,521 takes 18% 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
17.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,521
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$433,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.21Top 24%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.9%Top 42%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3876,140Top 10%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$253$1,521Top 20%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$22,327$433,200Top 16%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.8%Bottom 44%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.9%Bottom 28%of 32,0012024 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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 7.4 inches, including 20.9 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, 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 RENO TAHOE INTL AP, 19.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation7.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall20.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
51
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

13 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeHigh
DroughtModerate
Heat waveModerate
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, volcanic activity, landslide, ice storm, hail, strong wind, avalanche, tornado.

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.

Lyon County records 3.4 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 17.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.4 per 100,000 residents in Lyon County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.6
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 Lyon 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 Dayton rather than Dayton 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Reno/Tahoe IntlRNO20 mi11,001 ft
Reno/SteadRTS33 mi9,000 ft
Lake TahoeTVL36 mi8,541 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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Other cities in Reno, NV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RenoWashoe County273,21258vs Dayton
SparksWashoe County110,02461vs Dayton
Sun ValleyWashoe County22,228vs Dayton
Spanish SpringsWashoe County17,980vs Dayton
Cold SpringsWashoe County11,321vs Dayton

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.

Compare

Put Dayton side by side with a similar place.

Dayton vs RosedaleDayton vs MaranaDayton vs Knik-FairviewDayton vs Fernley

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Dayton

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8940317,506$97,153