Albany, New York

Area Profile

100,492 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Albany, in Albany County.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 49% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2342nd of 3,904 cities measured51
Schools2176th of 2,668 cities measured26
Growth1887th of 2,973 cities measured43
Housing affordability2255th of 4,223 cities measured78
Climate3601st of 4,223 cities measured60
Physical resilienceTop 6% of 4,182 cities measured94
AccessTop 14% of 4,226 cities measured99
Economic stability3542nd of 4,226 cities measured39
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 236 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Albany in the top 6% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
100,492
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,986
Bottom 42% nationally
Density
4,695/sq mi
21.4 sq mi of land
Median age
32.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Albany County
New York
Metro area
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
Nearest major airport
ALB
6 mi · Albany Intl
Median home value
$234,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 43% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 50,467 employed residents.

45% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,652$61,986Bottom 42%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,292$37,843Top 38%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.9%Top 18%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.0 minBottom 25%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher45.3%Top 15%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment50,467Top 50%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.0%Bottom 34%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 39%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force52,847Top 50%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation63.4%Top 40%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,830Top 39%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$58,460Top 26%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 29%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 43%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.73.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.5% 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
202120222023202462k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,986 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 — Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides13,180$37,590
Retail Salespersons11,930$35,420
Registered Nurses10,230$99,970
General and Operations Managers8,890$111,130
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners8,880$37,810
Cashiers8,570$34,290

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.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
22
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
25.1%
Bottom 17% in New York
Reading proficiency
37.3%
Bottom 11% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ALBANY HIGH SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT2,93715.2
KIPP TECH VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL · charterKIPP TECH VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL84019.1
KIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL · charterKIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL68821.5
WILLIAM S HACKETT MIDDLE SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT6159.525%
STEPHEN AND HARRIET MYERS MIDDLE SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT5708.45%
WESTMERE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGUILDERLAND CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT52811.251%61%
NEW SCOTLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT45115.638%54%
GREEN TECH HIGH CHARTER SCHOOL · charterGREEN TECH HIGH CHARTER SCHOOL45012.9
GIFFEN MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT38712.513%23%
ALBANY LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL FOR GIRLS · charterALBANY LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL FOR GIRLS383
ALBANY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIESALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT37813.533%43%
NYS DEPT OF CORRECTIONS PLACEMENTNEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS374

67.3% 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 New York’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 $1,216 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
23.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,216
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$234,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.79Top 31%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate38.2%Bottom 4%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±87750,408Top 1%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$37$1,216Top 32%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,884$234,700Top 39%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.5%Top 23%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.0%Top 43%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 →
Development Momentum
43/ 100
Ranks 1887 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 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 3% since 2020, reaching 101,317 in 2024.

At 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
236
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Top 50% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
23.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024101k99k
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
20202021202220232024202544048
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+638%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.7 inches, including 59.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 36, 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°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ALBANY AP, 5.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation40.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall59.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing49°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
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

94 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
Ice stormModerate
HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, lightning, tornado, strong wind, cold wave, hail, winter weather, avalanche, 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.

Albany County records 3.8 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 7.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.6 per 100,000 residents in Albany County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.1
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 Albany 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 Albany rather than Albany 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Albany IntlALB6 mi8,500 ft
Westfield-Barnes RgnlBAF65 mi9,000 ft
Bradley IntlBDL76 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
61
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Other cities in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
SchenectadySchenectady County68,84757vs Albany
TroyRensselaer County51,03355vs Albany
Saratoga SpringsSaratoga County28,63175vs Albany
RotterdamSchenectady County22,695vs Albany
NiskayunaSchenectady County21,227vs Albany
CohoesAlbany County18,15963vs Albany
LathamAlbany County13,802vs Albany
East GlenvilleSchenectady County11,914vs Albany
RoesslevilleAlbany County10,968vs Albany
LoudonvilleAlbany County10,527vs Albany
WatervlietAlbany County10,28759vs Albany

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.

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)
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 Albany

8 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1220330,771$83,14767
1220823,289$70,41367
1220614,572$41,54855
1220910,626$89,39067
1221010,297$55,84364
1220210,166$52,86860
122226,889$59,27455
122071,988$58,99864