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.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesUnemployment is 4.0% and median household income $67,904, putting employment conditions in the middle range of counties measured.
In the public schools here, 59% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 11.2 students for every teacher.
116 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 11% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.0%, lower than in 53% of the 1,467 measured US counties.
Employment grew 0.5% over the past year, to 33,919 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsfiling years 2022–2023 | $55,416 | 41st percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftfiling years 2022–2023 | $56,338 | 45th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$2,5662024 ACS 5-Year | $67,904 | Top 42%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,0152024 ACS 5-Year | $36,905 | Top 39%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income2023 | $54,181 | Bottom 43%of 1,389 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 13.1% | Bottom 48%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±0.7 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 24.0 min | Top 38%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 24.6% | Top 40%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 78.8% | 59th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 33,919 | Top 50%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | −1.1% | Bottom 35%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | +0.5% | Top 29%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 35,345 | 50th percentileof 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 74.6% | Bottom 45%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.3% | 59th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | +0.1% | Bottom 33%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 4.0% | Top 47%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±0.9%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.7% | 42nd percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
59% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 11.2 students for every full-time teacher across 20 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auburn High School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 1,176 | 13.8 | 93% | 92% |
| Auburn Junior High School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 560 | 10.0 | 36% | 25% |
| William H Seward Elementary School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 491 | 10.4 | 50% | 33% |
| Cato-Meridian Elementary School | CATO-MERIDIAN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 463 | 11.6 | 62% | 42% |
| A a Gates Elementary School | PORT BYRON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 447 | 14.0 | 38% | 29% |
| Moravia Junior-Senior High School | MORAVIA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 442 | 10.0 | 54% | 55% |
| Millard Fillmore Elementary School | MORAVIA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 408 | 10.7 | 36% | 38% |
| Herman Avenue Elementary School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 399 | 10.2 | 49% | 33% |
| Cato-Meridian Junior-Senior High School | CATO-MERIDIAN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 383 | 11.3 | 95% | 95% |
| Casey Park Elementary School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 381 | 10.0 | 26% | 18% |
| Weedsport Junior-Senior High School | WEEDSPORT CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 374 | 9.3 | 77% | 62% |
| Genesee Street Elementary School | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 369 | 10.3 | 42% | 26% |
50.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against New York’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of New York is up 52% over five years, and up 6.7% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $3,740 a year in real estate taxes, about 2.19% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,124, some 19% above the $942 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,124 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $45,000 a year, about 66% of the median household income here of $67,904.
The typical renter household here spends 30% of its income on rent, at the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $942 a month.
A median home at $171,000 costs 2.1 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $83,243, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
The figures above are measured against Cayuga County’s median household income of $67,904, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of New York’s figure2026 Q2 | +6.7% | 94th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New York’s figure2026 Q2 | +52.3% | 79th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New York’s figure2026 Q2 | +101.7% | 63rd percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.12024 ACS 5-Year | 2.1 | Top 25%of 3,217 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 71.4% | 35th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±1152024 ACS 5-Year | 36,829 | 77th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $889 | Top 40%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,463 | Top 44%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,124 | Top 44%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$462024 ACS 5-Year | $942 | Bottom 38%of 3,215 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$3,7602024 ACS 5-Year | $171,000 | 44th percentileof 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$892024 ACS 5-Year | $3,740 | 91st percentileof 3,172 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$2,6752024 ACS 5-Year | $83,243 | Top 36%of 3,218 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.07%2024 ACS 5-Year | 2.19% | 98th percentileof 3,126 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 30.0% | Bottom 28%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±2302024 ACS 5-Year | 2,572 | 87th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.0% | 73rd percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.4% | 36th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±4062024 ACS 5-Year | 5,305 | 81st percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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, to 74,567 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 116 units authorized in 2025, 28% below the prior year.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 116 units permitted over the past twelve months, only 17% are in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show that people moving in from elsewhere in the US and people moving out roughly balanced across Cayuga County in the most recent year. Households that moved in reported an average income of $55,416, close to the $56,338 of households that moved out.
At 1.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US counties.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Onondaga County, NY 567 people · 26% of arrivals
- Oswego County, NY 159 people · 7.3% of arrivals
- Tompkins County, NY 148 people · 6.8% of arrivals
- Wayne County, NY 121 people · 5.6% of arrivals
- Seneca County, NY 85 people · 3.9% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Onondaga County, NY 462 people · 22% of departures
- Oswego County, NY 151 people · 7.2% of departures
- Wayne County, NY 117 people · 5.6% of departures
- Tompkins County, NY 116 people · 5.5% of departures
- Cortland County, NY 88 people · 4.2% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
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.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 39.9" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals | 127.8" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 17°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 82°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 48°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind, with inland flooding alone responsible for 80% of it. Tornado is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.
Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, winter weather, drought, earthquake, lightning, landslide, tornado, wildfire, avalanche, cold wave, coastal flooding, volcanic activity, tsunami.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). These are FEMA’s own figures for this county rather than a value derived from surrounding geographies. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
These are deaths, not offenses — they say 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 about 7.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at about 12.7 per 100,000 residents in Cayuga County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe Cayuga County as a whole. They are shown and not scored. How to read death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. City profiles inside this area carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Syracuse Hancock Intl at 25 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 89.1% | Top 33%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 25 mi | Top 34%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 4 | Top 43%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±1.0%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.9% | Top 30%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Hancock Intl | SYR | 25 mi | 9,013 ft |
| Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester Intl | ROC | 56 mi | 8,001 ft |
| Elmira/Corning Rgnl | ELM | 61 mi | 8,001 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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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyData & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.
Cities in Cayuga County, NY
ZIP areas
Only ZIP areas whose income or home value differ from their city’s by at least ten percent get a profile of their own, so this is a selection rather than every ZIP code in the county.