Albany County, NY

County Profile

317,018 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Albany County, NY.

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.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 11% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 20% of 1,255 counties71
SchoolsTop 7% of 973 counties85
Growth1051st of 1,226 counties29
Housing affordabilityTop 47% of 1,255 counties94
Climate981st of 1,254 counties60
Physical resilienceTop 3% of 1,255 counties95
AccessTop 12% of 1,255 counties96
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 1,255 counties67
The quick read

Albany County ranks in the top 20% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $85,333.

Residential permitting has slowed: 523 units authorized over the past twelve months, 27% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Albany County in the top 3% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
317,018
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$85,333
Top 13% nationally
Density
606/sq mi
522.9 sq mi of land
Median age
38.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Albany County
New York
Metro area
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
Nearest major airport
ALB
14 mi · Albany Intl
Median home value
$294,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 70% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 160,168 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 95% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,280$85,333Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,090$48,210Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.0%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher46.4%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment160,168Top 17%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.4%Bottom 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 42%June 2026
Labor force166,331Top 18%June 2026
Labor force participation63.7%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.82.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% 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
202120222023202485k74k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $85,333 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.

44% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
72
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
44.1%
Top 17% in New York
Reading proficiency
59.3%
Top 17% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ALBANY HIGH SCHOOLALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT2,93715.2
SHAKER HIGH SCHOOLNORTH COLONIE CSD2,13812.1
COLONIE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLSOUTH COLONIE CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT1,64013.3
SHAKER MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTH COLONIE CSD1,48612.342%77%
GUILDERLAND HIGH SCHOOLGUILDERLAND CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT1,47611.1
BETHLEHEM CENTRAL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBETHLEHEM CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT1,32213.1
FARNSWORTH MIDDLE SCHOOLGUILDERLAND CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT1,18610.732%
BETHLEHEM CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOLBETHLEHEM CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT95011.722%72%
SAND CREEK MIDDLE SCHOOLSOUTH COLONIE CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT87311.149%49%
KIPP TECH VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL · charterKIPP TECH VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL84019.1
WATERVLIET JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLWATERVLIET CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT78512.55%45%
KIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL · charterKIPP ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL68821.5

44.5% 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 $1,313 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,313
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$294,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.45Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate56.6%Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±143147,662Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$26$1,313Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,249$294,600Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.5%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.8%Bottom 23%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
29/ 100
Ranks 1051 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 319,964 in 2024.

At 1.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
523
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.6
Bottom 28% nationally
Year over year
−27%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
30.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024320k314k
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
202020212022202320242025959603
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+5%).

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, 13.6 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

95 / 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 National Risk Index county record. 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
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
13.6
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
10.1
per 100,000 residents

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 County rather than Albany 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
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 14 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Albany IntlALB14 mi8,500 ft
Westfield-Barnes RgnlBAF71 mi9,000 ft
New York Stewart IntlSWF75 mi11,817 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
74
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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.