Cheshire County, NH
County Profile
77,297 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cheshire County, NH.
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.
Cheshire County ranks in the top 15% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.5% and median household income of $83,329.
Rent takes 18% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.4 times that income.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, hurricane and earthquake.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 2.5% is lower than 98% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 38,796 employed residents.
36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 86% of measured US locations.
Household income is higher than at least 85% of measured US locations.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$3,984 | $83,329 | Top 15%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,311 | $43,485 | Top 16%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income | $67,074 | Top 22%of 1,206 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate | 8.7% | Bottom 16%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 25.1 min | Bottom 46%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 35.5% | Top 14%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 38,796 | Bottom 47%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -0.9% | Bottom 33%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -0.6% | Top 49%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 39,794 | Bottom 47%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 62.5% | Top 30%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.5% | Bottom 16%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 2.5% | Bottom 2%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 11.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keene High School | Keene School District | 1,288 | 12.3 | — | — |
| Keene Middle School | Keene School District | 626 | 11.0 | 17% | 42% |
| Monadnock Regional High School | Monadnock Regional School District | 448 | 12.8 | — | — |
| Conant Middle High School (H) | Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District | 336 | 22.4 | — | — |
| Rindge Memorial School | Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District | 324 | 10.5 | 45% | 54% |
| Winchester School | Winchester School District | 322 | 11.1 | 24% | 30% |
| Cutler Elementary School | Monadnock Regional School District | 316 | 13.7 | 28% | 33% |
| Symonds Elementary School | Keene School District | 299 | 11.1 | 41% | 51% |
| Fuller Elementary School | Keene School District | 275 | 11.0 | 24% | 45% |
| Mt. Caesar Elementary School | Monadnock Regional School District | 268 | 12.2 | — | — |
| Chesterfield Central School | Chesterfield School District | 253 | 11.0 | 38% | 50% |
| Jaffrey Grade School | Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District | 250 | 8.9 | 41% | 45% |
30.0% 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 New Hampshire’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 $1,276 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 3.36 | Top 35%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 72.7% | Bottom 41%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±64 | 35,899 | Top 23%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$54 | $1,276 | Top 14%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$6,524 | $280,100 | Top 23%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 18.4% | Top 34%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 14.7% | Top 48%of 3,222 | 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 →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 2% since 2020, reaching 78,078 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 5% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 2.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 13°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 46.4 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 36, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 54.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 46.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 13°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 81°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 36.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 48°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and earthquake.
Low or minimal exposure: lightning, cold wave, winter weather, tornado, avalanche, hail, strong wind, wildfire.
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.
Safety
How it’s measured →These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Cheshire County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 18.0 per 100,000 residents in Cheshire County.
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 Cheshire 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 Cheshire County rather than Cheshire 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
- 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
- Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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
6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 41 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester Boston Rgnl | MHT | 41 mi | 9,250 ft |
| Westfield-Barnes Rgnl | BAF | 58 mi | 9,000 ft |
| Bradley Intl | BDL | 72 mi | 9,510 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 for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 | Annually, each December |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, 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.