Elko, Nevada

Area Profile

20,696 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Elko, in Elko County.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 13% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 37% of 3,904 published cities62
Schools1796th of 2,668 published cities38
GrowthTop 22% of 2,973 published cities66
Housing affordabilityTop 39% of 4,223 published cities87
Climate4158th of 4,223 published cities52
Physical resilience4180th of 4,182 published cities1
Access4155th of 4,226 published cities39
Economic stability2612th of 4,226 published cities54
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 102 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 62% on the prior year.

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

The nearest major airport is 91 miles away, which is farther than most measured US cities.

At a glance

Population
20,696
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,036
Top 35% nationally
Density
1,160/sq mi
17.8 sq mi of land
Median age
33.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Elko County
Nevada
Metro area
Elko, NV
Nearest major airport
ENV
91 mi · Wendover
Median home value
$309,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 84% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 26,670 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,484$79,036Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,709$37,142Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.8%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.9 minTop 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.2%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,670Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.1%Bottom 49%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 48%June 2026
Labor force27,650Bottom 34%June 2026
Labor force participation68.4%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202485k76k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,036 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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Elko County, NV, which contains this city.

26% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 19.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
26.0%
Bottom 48% in Nevada
Reading proficiency
37.9%
Bottom 38% in Nevada
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Elko High SchoolElko1,40721.3
Flagview Intermediate SchoolElko67421.120%37%
Adobe Middle SchoolElko66823.013%37%
Southside Elementary SchoolElko51121.310%24%
Mountain View Elementary SchoolElko50716.939%47%
Elko Institute for Academic Achievement · charterState Sponsored Charter Schools39823.439%39%
Northside Elementary SchoolElko34114.840%41%
Grammar School 2Elko34118.939%45%
Independence High SchoolCorrectional School District405.7
Early Childhood GBCElko20
Independence Valley Elementary SchoolElko5

47.6% 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 $1,267 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,267
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$309,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.91Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.6%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3728,589Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$76$1,267Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,502$309,100Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.2%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.4%Top 45%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
66/ 100
Top 22% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 20,822 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 11% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
102
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.9
Top 30% nationally
Year over year
+62%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
10.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202421k21k
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
20202021202220232024202510035
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (0%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 10.0 inches, including 41.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 23, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ELKO RGNL AP, 1.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation10.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall41.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index23.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
23
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
51
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

1 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeElevated
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, avalanche, landslide, inland flooding, lightning, drought, cold wave, hail, strong wind, volcanic activity, 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.

Elko County records 4.5 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 27.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.3 per 100,000 residents in Elko County.

Homicide
4.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
25.8
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 Elko 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 Elko rather than Elko 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 91 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
WendoverENV91 mi10,002 ft
Joslin Fld/Magic Valley RgnlTWF131 mi8,704 ft
Boise Air Trml/Gowen FldBOI190 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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Other cities in Elko, NV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Spring CreekElko County14,739vs Elko

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 Elko side by side with a similar place.

Elko vs CarlsbadElko vs PascoElko vs Grand IslandElko vs Terrace Heights

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
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 Elko

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8980126,480$82,14450