14225Cheektowaga, New York

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 14225.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Schools2672nd of 4,422 published ZIP areas43
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
Climate5111th of 6,789 published ZIP areas62
Physical resilienceTop 24% of 6,709 published ZIP areas80
AccessTop 32% of 6,791 published ZIP areas97
Economic stabilityTop 39% of 6,742 published ZIP areas65
The quick read

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.5 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 14225 in the top 24% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 1 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
33,620
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,237
Bottom 43% nationally
Density
2,928/sq mi
11.5 sq mi of land
Median age
38.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Cheektowaga
New York
Metro area
Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY
Nearest major airport
BUF
1 mi · Buffalo Niagara Intl
Median home value
$170,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,771$67,237Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,082$37,029Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.0%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.8 minBottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.5%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation67.9%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,480Bottom 44%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,790Top 49%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202467k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,237 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 — Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides18,090$36,570
Retail Salespersons15,160$34,910
Fast Food and Counter Workers14,170$34,560
Registered Nurses13,830$99,060
General and Operations Managers11,100$103,280
Cashiers10,590$33,850

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.

27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
27.2%
Bottom 30% in New York
Reading proficiency
45.4%
Bottom 31% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
UNION EAST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT96312.820%37%
CHEEKTOWAGA HIGH SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT68210.3
CHEEKTOWAGA MIDDLE SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT67710.65%32%
CLEVELAND HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCLEVELAND HILL UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT66110.527%42%
MARYVALE HIGH SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA-MARYVALE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT66011.6
MARYVALE PRIMARY SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA-MARYVALE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT56812.6
MARYVALE MIDDLE SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA-MARYVALE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT51810.845%70%
MARYVALE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLCHEEKTOWAGA-MARYVALE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT49012.050%58%
CLEVELAND HILL HIGH SCHOOLCLEVELAND HILL UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT3989.7
CLEVELAND HILL MIDDLE SCHOOLCLEVELAND HILL UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT3058.537%47%

63.1% 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 $965 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
17.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$965
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$170,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.53Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.9%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±60616,186Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$39$965Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,534$170,400Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.2%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.0%Bottom 17%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 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 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.7 inches, including 95.4 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BUFFALO, 1.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index62.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation40.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall95.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
62
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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding and heat wave.

Inland floodingElevated
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, tornado, ice storm, lightning, earthquake, strong wind, hurricane, wildfire, landslide, coastal flooding, hail, drought, avalanche.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Erie County records 3.4 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 6.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.0 per 100,000 residents in Erie County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.9
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 Erie 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 14225 rather than 14225 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 1 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Buffalo Niagara IntlBUF1 mi8,829 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC56 mi8,001 ft
Erie Intl/Tom Ridge FldERI93 mi8,420 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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

14225 vs Cheektowaga

How this ZIP area compares with Cheektowaga as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

14225
Cheektowaga
Median household income
$67,237
vs
$68,613
Per capita income
$37,029
vs
$36,961
Population density
2,928/sq mi
vs
2,997/sq mi
Median home value
$170,400
vs
$185,500
Median gross rent
$965
vs
$1,055
Homeownership rate
72.9%
vs
71.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
29.5%
vs
29.6%
Poverty rate
12.0%
vs
10.7%
Median age
38.8
vs
39.4

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.