Syracuse, New York

Area Profile

146,384 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Syracuse, in Onondaga County.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 47% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3366th of 3,904 published cities37
Schools2440th of 2,668 published cities18
GrowthTop 12% of 2,973 published cities74
Housing affordabilityTop 49% of 4,223 published cities81
Climate3516th of 4,223 published cities61
Physical resilienceTop 12% of 4,182 published cities89
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 published cities98
Economic stability3973rd of 4,226 published cities29
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Syracuse in the bottom 14%.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 1,286 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 467% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Syracuse in the top 12% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
146,384
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$47,819
Bottom 20% nationally
Density
5,842/sq mi
25.1 sq mi of land
Median age
31.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Onondaga County
New York
Metro area
Syracuse, NY
Nearest major airport
SYR
5 mi · Syracuse Hancock Intl
Median home value
$138,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 61,400 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $47,819 is below 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,145$47,819Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$955$28,393Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate28.8%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.5 minBottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.2%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment61,400Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.3%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 43%June 2026
Labor force64,757Top 46%June 2026
Labor force participation56.9%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,470Bottom 48%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$52,990Top 42%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.13.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.2% 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
202120222023202448k40k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $47,819 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.

11% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 23% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
37
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
11.5%
Bottom 1% in New York
Reading proficiency
23.3%
Bottom 1% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HENNINGER HIGH SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,48313.4
NOTTINGHAM HIGH SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,35015.2
CORCORAN HIGH SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,33815.2
PUBLIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AT FOWLERSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT1,12612.9
SYRACUSE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE CHARTER SCHOOL · charterSYRACUSE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE CHARTER SCHOOL99316.8
HUNTINGTON K-8 SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT93413.310%21%
HURLBUT W SMITH K-8 SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT77612.94%14%
FRAZER K-8 SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT77410.54%17%
CITIZENSHIP AND SCIENCE ACADEMY OF SYRACUSE CHARTER SCHOOL · charterCITIZENSHIP AND SCIENCE ACADEMY OF SYRACUSE CHARTER SCHOOL76416.6
DR WEEKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT71114.53%13%
EDWARD SMITH K-8 SCHOOLSYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT69710.316%40%
SOUTHSIDE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL · charterSOUTHSIDE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL68520.1

76.9% 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 $1,039 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
26.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,039
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$138,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.89Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate41.6%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±81067,601Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$20$1,039Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,158$138,400Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.1%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.5%Top 44%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
74/ 100
Top 12% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 146,097 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

98% 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 8.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1,286
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.8
Top 16% nationally
Year over year
+467%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
98.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024147k146k
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
2020202120222023202420251k11
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+10445%).

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.

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

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SYRACUSE HANCOCK INTL AP, 5.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation39.9"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall127.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low17°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
53
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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
Ice stormModerate
Heat waveModerate
HurricaneModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, inland flooding, lightning, tornado, earthquake, hail, cold wave, landslide, wildfire, 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.

Onondaga County records 4.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 9.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.5 per 100,000 residents in Onondaga County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.6
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 Onondaga 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 Syracuse rather than Syracuse 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 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Syracuse Hancock IntlSYR5 mi9,013 ft
Griffiss IntlRME39 mi11,820 ft
Elmira/Corning RgnlELM72 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
60
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Other cities in Syracuse, NY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
OswegoOswego County17,03358vs Syracuse
FultonOswego County11,27256vs Syracuse
De WittOnondaga County11,060vs Syracuse
OneidaMadison County10,17158vs Syracuse

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 Syracuse side by side with a similar place.

Syracuse vs AkronSyracuse vs AshtabulaSyracuse vs ElkhartSyracuse vs Youngstown

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 Syracuse

8 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1320822,993$44,71259
1321019,803$41,73861
1320419,440$45,35159
1320519,137$38,49757
1320616,245$63,13671
1320316,180$46,99759
1321514,751$113,86475
1320712,290$60,72061