Gardnerville Ranchos, Nevada

Area Profile

12,114 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gardnerville Ranchos, in Douglas 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 15% of 3,904 cities measured74
SchoolsTop 48% of 2,668 cities measured53
Housing affordability2934th of 4,223 cities measured68
Climate4047th of 4,223 cities measured54
Physical resilience3788th of 4,182 cities measured14
AccessTop 31% of 4,226 cities measured96
Economic stability2793rd of 4,226 cities measured52
The quick read

Gardnerville Ranchos ranks in the top 15% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.0% and median household income of $87,785.

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

A major airport is 13 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
12,114
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$87,785
Top 27% nationally
Density
1,173/sq mi
10.3 sq mi of land
Median age
46.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Douglas County
Nevada
Metro area
Gardnerville Ranchos, NV-CA
Nearest major airport
TVL
13 mi · Lake Tahoe
Median home value
$486,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 62% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.1% over the past year, to 23,813 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$9,514$87,785Top 27%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,729$41,141Top 30%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.5%Bottom 44%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.2 minTop 29%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.5%Top 43%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,813Bottom 31%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)9.2%Top 1%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.1%Top 12%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force24,807Bottom 31%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation51.5%Bottom 25%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 38%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202488k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $87,785 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 Douglas County, NV, which contains this city.

29% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.3%
Top 33% in Nevada
Reading proficiency
38.9%
Bottom 48% in Nevada
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Pau Wa Lu Middle SchoolDouglas46019.222%32%
C. C. Meneley Elementary SchoolDouglas36316.530%32%
G. L. Scarselli Elementary SchoolDouglas30516.939%57%

40.3% 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 $1,533 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,533
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$486,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.54Top 11%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate81.1%Top 39%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2744,969Top 12%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$157$1,533Top 20%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,151$486,000Top 12%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 35%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.7%Bottom 18%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

3 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of 18°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 20.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 22, 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 SOUTH LAKE TAHOE AP, 13.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation20.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low18°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months31991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index22.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
22
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
50
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

14 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeHigh
DroughtModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Douglas County records 3.0 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 12.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.5 per 100,000 residents in Douglas County.

Homicide
3.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
22.2
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 Douglas 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 Gardnerville Ranchos rather than Gardnerville Ranchos 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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 13 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Lake TahoeTVL13 mi8,541 ft
Reno/Tahoe IntlRNO42 mi11,001 ft
Reno/SteadRTS54 mi9,000 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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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
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 Gardnerville Ranchos

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8946014,534$92,292