Cayuga County, NY

County Profile

75,102 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cayuga 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.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 42% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 46% of 1,255 counties57
Schools703rd of 973 counties33
Growth1000th of 1,226 counties32
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate950th of 1,254 counties61
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties67
AccessTop 32% of 1,255 counties89
Economic stability886th of 1,255 counties48
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.6% and median household income $67,904, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 31% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 10.4 students for every teacher.

116 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 11% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
75,102
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,904
Top 42% nationally
Density
109/sq mi
691.6 sq mi of land
Median age
43.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cayuga County
New York
Metro area
Auburn, NY
Nearest major airport
SYR
25 mi · Syracuse Hancock Intl
Median home value
$171,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 75% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 34,296 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,566$67,904Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,015$36,905Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.5%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.0 minBottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.6%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment34,296Bottom 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 46%June 2026
Labor force35,574Bottom 44%June 2026
Labor force participation58.1%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.92.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.6% 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
202120222023202468k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,904 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
22
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.1%
Bottom 26% in New York
Reading proficiency
45.5%
Bottom 6% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
AUBURN HIGH SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,17613.8
AUBURN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT56010.08%32%
WILLIAM H SEWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT49110.439%38%
CATO-MERIDIAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCATO-MERIDIAN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT46311.641%52%
A A GATES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLPORT BYRON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT44714.031%41%
MORAVIA JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLMORAVIA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT44210.022%82%
MILLARD FILLMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMORAVIA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT40810.745%50%
HERMAN AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT39910.225%34%
CATO-MERIDIAN JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLCATO-MERIDIAN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT38311.317%42%
CASEY PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT38110.011%20%
WEEDSPORT JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLWEEDSPORT CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3749.345%55%
GENESEE STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOLAUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT36910.312%26%

50.5% 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 $942 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
16.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$942
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$171,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.52Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.4%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±11536,829Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$942Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$3,760$171,000Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.6%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.4%Top 49%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
32/ 100
Ranks 1000 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 74,567 in 2024.

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 17% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
116
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.5
Bottom 26% nationally
Year over year
−11%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
17.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202476k75k
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
202220232024202516165
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+78%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 17°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.9 inches, including 127.8 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SYRACUSE HANCOCK INTL AP, 24.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation39.9"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall127.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

67 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, strong wind and hail.

Inland floodingElevated
HurricaneModerate
Strong windModerate
HailModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

Cayuga 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 7.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.1 per 100,000 residents in Cayuga County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
16.1
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 Cayuga 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 Cayuga County rather than Cayuga 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR25 mi9,013 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC56 mi8,001 ft
Elmira/Corning RgnlELM61 mi8,001 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
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

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.

Cities in Cayuga County, NY