Oswego, New York

Area Profile

17,033 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Oswego, in Oswego County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 41% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2621st of 3,904 cities measured48
Schools1872nd of 2,668 cities measured36
Growth2389th of 2,973 cities measured32
Housing affordabilityTop 45% of 4,223 cities measured84
Climate3616th of 4,223 cities measured60
Physical resilienceTop 18% of 4,182 cities measured84
Access3009th of 4,226 cities measured85
Economic stability3680th of 4,226 cities measured36
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $53,172, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 8 units authorized over the past twelve months, 58% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Oswego in the top 18% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
17,033
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$53,172
Bottom 28% nationally
Density
2,237/sq mi
7.6 sq mi of land
Median age
35.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Oswego County
New York
Metro area
Syracuse, NY
Nearest major airport
SYR
31 mi · Syracuse Hancock Intl
Median home value
$120,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 51% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.2% over the past year, to 53,039 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,465$53,172Bottom 28%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,188$32,279Bottom 45%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate20.6%Top 22%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.6 minBottom 20%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.1%Top 37%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment53,039Top 49%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 37%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force55,428Top 49%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation61.5%Top 47%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,470Bottom 48%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$52,990Top 42%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 29%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 49%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202453k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $53,172 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 — Syracuse, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides8,310$37,440
Registered Nurses8,180$86,960
Retail Salespersons8,150$35,250
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,750$33,940
Stockers and Order Fillers6,640$38,950
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand6,390$44,660

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Oswego County, NY, which contains this city.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.1%
Bottom 24% in New York
Reading proficiency
45.6%
Bottom 23% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
OSWEGO HIGH SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,07912.5
OSWEGO MIDDLE SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT57211.922%57%
KINGSFORD PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT39714.222%46%
CHARLES E RILEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT39013.434%35%
FITZHUGH PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT31911.435%37%
LEIGHTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLOSWEGO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT29413.433%46%

42.3% 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 $1,109 takes 25% 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.

Rent as a share of income
25.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,109
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$120,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.27Bottom 31%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate50.2%Bottom 10%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2978,493Top 7%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,109Top 39%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,571$120,600Bottom 28%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.0%Top 17%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.7%Top 35%of 32,0012024 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 2389 of 2,973 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 1% since 2020, reaching 17,047 in 2024.

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

100% 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 0.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
8
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.5
Bottom 20% nationally
Year over year
−58%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
100.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
2022202320242025270.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 32, 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 FULTON OSWEGO CO AP, 9.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation39.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index32.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing47°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
32
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
44
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

84 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, strong wind, earthquake, lightning, hurricane, landslide, tornado, wildfire, coastal flooding, hail, cold wave, drought, avalanche.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Oswego 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 11.0 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 Oswego County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
21.2
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 Oswego 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 Oswego rather than Oswego 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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 31 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR31 mi9,013 ft
Griffiss IntlRME57 mi11,820 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC63 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
58
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Other cities in Syracuse, NY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
SyracuseOnondaga County146,38460vs Oswego
FultonOswego County11,27256vs Oswego
De WittOnondaga County11,060vs Oswego
OneidaMadison County10,17158vs Oswego

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Oswego side by side with a similar place.

Oswego vs GoshenOswego vs Michigan CityOswego vs GreenvilleOswego vs Fulton

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Oswego

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1312636,495$65,34661