Tompkins County, NY

County Profile

104,537 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Tompkins 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.

61out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 48% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity700th of 1,255 counties53
SchoolsTop 15% of 973 counties79
GrowthTop 35% of 1,226 counties58
Housing affordability977th of 1,255 counties78
Climate1151st of 1,254 counties54
Physical resilience826th of 1,255 counties49
AccessTop 40% of 1,255 counties86
Economic stability893rd of 1,255 counties48
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $74,024, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

393 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 9% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 23% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.9 times that income.

At a glance

Population
104,537
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$74,024
Top 28% nationally
Density
220/sq mi
474.6 sq mi of land
Median age
32.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Tompkins County
New York
Metro area
Ithaca, NY
Nearest major airport
ELM
29 mi · Elmira/Corning Rgnl
Median home value
$290,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 50% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 44,973 employed residents.

59% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 99% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,332$74,024Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,340$41,808Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.4%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.4 minBottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher58.8%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment44,973Top 48%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.1%Bottom 21%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force46,926Top 48%June 2026
Labor force participation58.4%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 20%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Top 50%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.52.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% 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
202120222023202474k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $74,024 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 — Ithaca, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,170$35,510
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary1,140$159,720
Registered Nurses940$100,320
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive900$47,990
Fast Food and Counter Workers870$34,800
Office Clerks, General860$37,380

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.

41% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 9.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
33
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
9.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
40.8%
Top 31% in New York
Reading proficiency
58.3%
Top 20% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
ITHACA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,41113.8
DEWITT MIDDLE SCHOOLITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT5599.535%75%
BOYNTON MIDDLE SCHOOLITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT5139.552%67%
DRYDEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDRYDEN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT5008.527%39%
TRUMANSBURG ELEMENTARY SCHOOLTRUMANSBURG CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT40911.757%63%
GROTON JUNIOR/SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLGROTON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT39611.015%45%
RAYMOND C BUCKLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLLANSING CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT39212.336%69%
GROTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLGROTON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT38812.555%46%
LANSING HIGH SCHOOLLANSING CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3719.8
SOUTH HILL SCHOOLITHACA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT36310.757%74%
DRYDEN HIGH SCHOOLDRYDEN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT3569.9
LANSING MIDDLE SCHOOLLANSING CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT35510.146%55%

36.1% 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 $1,411 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,411
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$290,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.93Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate54.1%Bottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±13147,804Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$42$1,411Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,898$290,900Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.9%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.5%Bottom 27%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
58/ 100
Top 35% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 6% since 2020, reaching 105,602 in 2024.

61% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 3.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
393
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.8
Top 40% nationally
Year over year
−9%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
60.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024106k100k
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
2022202320242025431221
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+47%).

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.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ITHACA 13 E, 11.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low13°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
47
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

49 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingElevated
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Tompkins County records 1.8 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 6.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.6 per 100,000 residents in Tompkins County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Tompkins 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 Tompkins County rather than Tompkins 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 29 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Elmira/Corning RgnlELM29 mi8,001 ft
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR49 mi9,013 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC76 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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Area Score
61
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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.

Cities in Tompkins County, NY