Cortland County, NY
County Profile
46,246 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cortland 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.
Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $70,418, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.
Residential permitting has slowed: 31 units authorized over the past twelve months, 18% below the prior year.
Rent takes 17% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.3 times that income.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 46% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 20,559 employed residents.
29% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US locations.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$2,912 | $70,418 | Top 36%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,053 | $34,752 | Bottom 49%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income | $50,540 | Bottom 25%of 1,206 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate | 12.8% | Bottom 45%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 24.3 min | Bottom 40%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 29.1% | Top 26%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 20,559 | Bottom 25%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -1.1% | Bottom 31%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -0.8% | Bottom 46%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 21,489 | Bottom 25%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 62.4% | Top 30%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.4% | Top 32%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.3% | Top 46%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →43% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 54% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 10.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CORTLAND HIGH SCHOOL | CORTLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 582 | 10.4 | — | — |
| HOMER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | HOMER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 558 | 10.9 | — | — |
| HOMER INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL | HOMER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 443 | 11.7 | 45% | 50% |
| HOMER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | HOMER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 430 | 11.9 | — | — |
| FRANKLYN S BARRY PRIMARY SCHOOL | CORTLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 417 | 11.3 | — | — |
| HOMER JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | HOMER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 397 | 8.6 | 42% | 52% |
| WILLIAM APPLEBY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | MARATHON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 378 | 10.8 | 52% | 51% |
| MARATHON HIGH SCHOOL | MARATHON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 295 | 8.9 | 25% | 55% |
| FE SMITH INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL | CORTLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 291 | 11.6 | 44% | 48% |
| CORTLAND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | CORTLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 274 | 9.8 | 12% | 42% |
| RANDALL MIDDLE SCHOOL | CORTLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 272 | 9.1 | 47% | 42% |
| MCGRAW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | MCGRAW CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | 264 | 11.5 | 45% | 56% |
48.2% 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 $984 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.3 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.30 | Bottom 21%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 66.3% | Bottom 18%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±64 | 20,841 | Top 34%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$50 | $984 | Top 33%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$3,172 | $162,100 | Bottom 39%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 16.8% | Bottom 47%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 8.8% | Bottom 24%of 3,222 | 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 →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 45,945 in 2024.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 19% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 0.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.
Weather & climate
4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 13°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 41.7 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 41.7" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 13°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 79°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 4 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 46°F | 1991-2020 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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and heat wave.
Low or minimal exposure: landslide, ice storm, winter weather, earthquake, tornado, lightning, cold wave, hail, avalanche, strong wind, 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Cortland County records 2.1 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 7.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 13.1 per 100,000 residents in Cortland County.
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 Cortland 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 Cortland County rather than Cortland 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
- Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Taxes
- Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 36 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Hancock Intl | SYR | 36 mi | 9,013 ft |
| Elmira/Corning Rgnl | ELM | 51 mi | 8,001 ft |
| Griffiss Intl | RME | 56 mi | 11,820 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 for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 | Annually, each December |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory 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.