West Seneca, New York

Area Profile

45,303 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for West Seneca, in Erie County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Schools1565th of 2,668 published cities45
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 published cities100
Climate3212th of 4,223 published cities62
Physical resilienceTop 25% of 4,182 published cities80
AccessTop 29% of 4,226 published cities97
Economic stabilityTop 44% of 4,226 published cities63
The quick read

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.9 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing West Seneca in the top 25% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 7 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
45,303
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,709
Top 34% nationally
Density
2,118/sq mi
21.4 sq mi of land
Median age
43.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Erie County
New York
Metro area
Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY
Nearest major airport
BUF
7 mi · Buffalo Niagara Intl
Median home value
$232,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 75% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,164$79,709Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,826$43,684Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.8%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.4 minBottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.5%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation64.2%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,480Bottom 39%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,790Bottom 46%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k70k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,709 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 — Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides18,090$36,570
Retail Salespersons15,160$34,910
Fast Food and Counter Workers14,170$34,560
Registered Nurses13,830$99,060
General and Operations Managers11,100$103,280
Cashiers10,590$33,850

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.

30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 54% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 8.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
8.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.8%
Bottom 26% in New York
Reading proficiency
53.7%
Bottom 38% in New York
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
WEST SENECA WEST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT1,06912.6
WEST SENECA EAST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT77911.5
WEST MIDDLE SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT77811.315%55%
WEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT68012.844%62%
CLINTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT62914.652%59%
EAST MIDDLE SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT56710.513%37%
ALLENDALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT50913.128%52%
ERIE 1 BOCESERIE 1 BOCES4882.3
NORTHWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT4379.735%55%
WINCHESTER-POTTERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWEST SENECA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT42210.321%52%
WESTERN PSYCHIATRIC CENTERNEW YORK STATE OFFICE MENTAL HEALTH (OMH)34

34.3% 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 $1,106 takes 17% 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
16.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,106
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$232,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.92Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.9%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±55321,150Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$39$1,106Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,955$232,800Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.7%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.3%Bottom 30%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by 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 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.7 inches, including 95.4 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BUFFALO, 7.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index62.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation40.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall95.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
62
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingElevated
Heat waveModerate

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

Erie County records 3.4 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 6.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.0 per 100,000 residents in Erie County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.9
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 Erie 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 West Seneca rather than West Seneca 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Buffalo Niagara IntlBUF7 mi8,829 ft
Frederick Douglass/Greater Rochester IntlROC58 mi8,001 ft
Erie Intl/Tom Ridge FldERI89 mi8,420 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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Other cities in Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BuffaloErie County276,85454vs West Seneca
CheektowagaErie County76,056vs West Seneca
Tonawanda TownErie County56,806vs West Seneca
Niagara FallsNiagara County47,98751vs West Seneca
North TonawandaNiagara County30,19860vs West Seneca
LockportNiagara County20,61059vs West Seneca
LackawannaErie County19,75354vs West Seneca
KenmoreErie County15,04465vs West Seneca
TonawandaErie County15,03066vs West Seneca
DepewErie County15,00059vs West Seneca
EggertsvilleErie County14,894vs West Seneca
LancasterErie County10,11364vs West Seneca

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.

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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 West Seneca

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1422441,219$80,052