Otsego County, NY

County Profile

60,108 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Otsego 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.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 35% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity731st of 1,255 counties52
SchoolsTop 37% of 973 counties62
Growth748th of 1,226 counties44
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate1140th of 1,254 counties55
Physical resilience909th of 1,255 counties43
Access789th of 1,255 counties75
Economic stability1024th of 1,255 counties39
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $68,885, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 36% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 10.2 students for every teacher.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding and heat wave.

At a glance

Population
60,108
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$68,885
Top 40% nationally
Density
60/sq mi
1001.7 sq mi of land
Median age
39.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Otsego County
New York
Metro area
Oneonta, NY
Nearest major airport
RME
46 mi · Griffiss Intl
Median home value
$179,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 46% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 25,978 employed residents.

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,568$68,885Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,205$36,840Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.5%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.3 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.4%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment25,978Bottom 33%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.7%Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 24%June 2026
Labor force27,149Bottom 33%June 2026
Labor force participation55.2%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 23%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Top 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.93.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.3% 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
202120222023202469k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $68,885 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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 52% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.0%
Top 49% in New York
Reading proficiency
52.4%
Top 46% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ONEONTA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLONEONTA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT4999.6
CHERRY VALLEY-SPRINGFIELD CENTRAL SCHOOLCHERRY VALLEY-SPRINGFIELD CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT42010.244%49%
EDMESTON CENTRAL SCHOOLEDMESTON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT38910.847%61%
ONEONTA MIDDLE SCHOOLONEONTA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT3889.027%72%
COOPERSTOWN JUNIOR/SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLCOOPERSTOWN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT38712.955%75%
COOPERSTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLCOOPERSTOWN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT38111.961%64%
UNADILLA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOTEGO-UNADILLA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT34915.925%35%
MILFORD CENTRAL SCHOOLMILFORD CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3379.124%40%
MORRIS CENTRAL SCHOOLMORRIS CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3238.723%55%
WORCESTER SCHOOLWORCESTER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3089.621%42%
LAURENS CENTRAL SCHOOLLAURENS CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT2878.227%58%
GREATER PLAINS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLONEONTA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT28312.339%53%

41.9% 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 $987 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.6 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
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$987
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$179,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.60Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6430,057Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$42$987Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,897$179,100Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.2%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate22.8%Top 20%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
44/ 100
Ranks 748 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 grown 4% since 2020, reaching 60,524 in 2024.

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
118
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 34% nationally
Year over year
−11%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202461k58k
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
2022202320242025164122
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−22%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 73°F and January a low of 14°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.6 inches, including 85.5 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station COOPERSTOWN, 7.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation47.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall85.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low14°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high73°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing47°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

43 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingHigh
Heat waveModerate

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

Otsego County records 1.9 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 20.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 26.6 per 100,000 residents in Otsego County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
20.0
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
26.6
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
24.9
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 Otsego 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 Otsego County rather than Otsego 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 46 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Griffiss IntlRME46 mi11,820 ft
Albany IntlALB63 mi8,500 ft
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR64 mi9,013 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
58
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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 Otsego County, NY