Keene, New Hampshire

Area Profile

22,939 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Keene, in Cheshire County.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 38% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 23% of 3,904 published cities70
Schools1553rd of 2,668 published cities45
Growth2317th of 2,973 published cities34
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 4,223 published cities92
Climate3803rd of 4,223 published cities58
Physical resilience2951st of 4,182 published cities37
Access3399th of 4,226 published cities78
Economic stability2804th of 4,226 published cities51
The quick read

Keene ranks in the top 23% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.8% and median household income of $78,445.

Residential permitting has slowed: 5 units authorized over the past twelve months, 17% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
22,939
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$78,445
Top 35% nationally
Density
618/sq mi
37.1 sq mi of land
Median age
37.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cheshire County
New Hampshire
Metro area
Keene, NH
Nearest major airport
MHT
44 mi · Manchester Boston Rgnl
Median home value
$252,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.8% is lower than 97% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 11,908 employed residents.

44% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,109$78,445Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,750$40,992Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.1%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.1 minBottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher44.1%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,908Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 28%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 47%June 2026
Labor force12,245Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force participation61.3%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 28%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.8%Bottom 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.01.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.8% 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
202120222023202478k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $78,445 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.

24% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.9%
Bottom 23% in New Hampshire
Reading proficiency
42.0%
Bottom 46% in New Hampshire
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Keene High SchoolKeene School District1,28812.3
Keene Middle SchoolKeene School District62611.017%42%
Symonds Elementary SchoolKeene School District29911.141%51%
Fuller Elementary SchoolKeene School District27511.024%45%
Franklin Elementary SchoolKeene School District23411.725%35%
Gathering Waters Charter School (E) · charterGathering Waters Charter School2197.8
Wheelock Elementary SchoolKeene School District1928.718%32%
Jonathan Daniels SchoolKeene School District9318.6
Making Community Connections Charter School - Monadnock · charterMaking Community Connections Charter School8016.0
Surry Village Charter School · charterSurry Village Charter School7911.3
Gathering Waters Charter School (H) · charterGathering Waters Charter School677.4

30.4% 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 $1,342 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,342
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$252,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.22Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.1%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±35110,540Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$68$1,342Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,011$252,500Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.5%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.8%Top 47%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
34/ 100
Ranks 2317 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 23,036 in 2024.

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
5
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.2
Bottom 13% nationally
Year over year
−17%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202423k23k
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
202020212022202320242025133.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (0%).

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.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JAFFREY MUNI AP, 18.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low13°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

37 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
Ice stormModerate
HurricaneModerate
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

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 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.

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.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
23.2
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 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 Keene rather than Keene 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

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 44 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT44 mi9,250 ft
Westfield-Barnes RgnlBAF59 mi9,000 ft
Bradley IntlBDL73 mi9,510 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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Area Score
57
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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
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 Keene

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0343125,065$79,54159