Jamestown, North Dakota

Area Profile

15,787 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Jamestown, in Stutsman County.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 40% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 30% of 3,904 published cities66
Growth1562nd of 2,973 published cities49
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 4,223 published cities94
Climate4210th of 4,223 published cities46
Physical resilienceTop 33% of 4,182 published cities73
Access4148th of 4,226 published cities40
Economic stability3194th of 4,226 published cities45
The quick read

Unemployment is 2.4% and median household income $56,554, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times that income.

A typical July reaches 81°F and a typical January falls to 1°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
15,787
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,554
Bottom 34% nationally
Density
1,187/sq mi
13.3 sq mi of land
Median age
40.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Stutsman County
North Dakota
Metro area
Jamestown, ND
Nearest major airport
FAR
89 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$199,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.4% is lower than 99% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 11,170 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,879$56,554Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,485$37,433Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.7%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute12.5 minBottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.0%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,170Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.1%Top 33%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 47%June 2026
Labor force11,441Bottom 4%June 2026
Labor force participation58.9%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 35%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.4%Bottom 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202457k49k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,554 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.

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

50% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 9.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
9.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
49.7%
Reading proficiency
50.4%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
JAMESTOWN HIGH SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 172213.1
JAMESTOWN MIDDLE SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 14669.947%57%
WILLIAM S GUSSNER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 123971%51%
ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 12166.840%47%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 117945%41%
LOUIS L'AMOUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 11138.160%59%
WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 1976.530%30%

32.6% 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 North Dakota’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 $773 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$773
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$199,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.53Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate54.6%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1487,704Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$53$773Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,432$199,800Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.4%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.5%Bottom 40%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
49/ 100
Ranks 1562 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 15,789 in 2024.

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

At 0.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
9
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.6
Bottom 22% nationally
Year over year
+200%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k16k
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
20222023202420255.03.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+25%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 1°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 19.8 inches.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JAMESTOWN MUNI AP, 1.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation19.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low1°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing60°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

73 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave, hail and tornado.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 75% of measured US cities.

Winter weatherElevated
HailElevated
Cold waveElevated
Ice stormElevated
Strong windHigh
TornadoHigh

Low or minimal exposure: wildfire, landslide, drought, inland flooding, heat wave, earthquake, lightning.

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.

Stutsman County records 0.0 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 13.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.8 per 100,000 residents in Stutsman County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.3
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 Stutsman 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 Jamestown rather than Jamestown 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 89 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR89 mi9,001 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD248 mi9,000 ft
Rapid City RgnlRAP289 mi8,701 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
63
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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

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 Jamestown

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5840117,189$60,22866