Amherst, Ohio

Area Profile

12,906 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Amherst, in Lorain County.

78out of 100
Area Score
Top 4% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 33% of 3,904 published cities64
SchoolsTop 37% of 2,668 published cities61
GrowthTop 4% of 2,973 published cities81
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 published cities100
Climate3029th of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilienceTop 3% of 4,182 published cities96
AccessTop 44% of 4,226 published cities93
Economic stabilityTop 23% of 4,226 published cities72
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 124 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 1450% on the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 12% of median household income and the median home is 2.6 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Amherst in the top 3% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
12,906
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$90,725
Top 24% nationally
Density
1,822/sq mi
7.1 sq mi of land
Median age
42.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lorain County
Ohio
Metro area
Cleveland, OH
Nearest major airport
CLE
20 mi · Cleveland-Hopkins Intl
Median home value
$239,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 152,965 employed residents.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,755$90,725Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,631$44,275Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.2%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.1 minBottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.4%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment152,965Top 33%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 28%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 25%June 2026
Labor force158,793Top 33%June 2026
Labor force participation66.0%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,310Bottom 35%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,140Bottom 43%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202493k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $90,725 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 — Cleveland, OH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers29,510$97,750
Registered Nurses28,240$83,940
Fast Food and Counter Workers28,010$28,750
Retail Salespersons24,650$31,000
Stockers and Order Fillers22,660$36,290
Home Health and Personal Care Aides19,400$34,520

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 Lorain County, OH, which contains this city.

69% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 20.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
20.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
68.7%
Top 21% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
63.6%
Top 34% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Powers Elementary SchoolAmherst Exempted Village1,10420.467%62%
Marion L Steele High SchoolAmherst Exempted Village1,01419.5
Amherst Junior High SchoolAmherst Exempted Village85921.067%62%
Walter G. Nord Middle SchoolAmherst Exempted Village55619.975%69%

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 Ohio’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 $906 takes 12% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.6 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
12.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$906
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$239,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.64Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate88.2%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2245,001Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$111$906Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,089$239,200Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income12.0%Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.4%Bottom 21%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
81/ 100
Top 4% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 13,048 in 2024.

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

78% 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 9.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
124
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.6
Top 14% nationally
Year over year
+1450%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
78.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k13k
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
2020202120222023202420251211.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+86%).

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 20°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 36.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 39, 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 ELYRIA LORAIN CO AP, 4.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation36.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index39.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
39
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
51
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

96 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windModerate
Ice stormModerate
HailModerate
TornadoModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, cold wave, lightning, earthquake, hurricane, wildfire, landslide, coastal flooding.

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.

Lorain County records 4.7 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 18.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.6 per 100,000 residents in Lorain County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.5
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 Lorain 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 Amherst rather than Amherst 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

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cleveland-Hopkins IntlCLE20 mi9,953 ft
Mansfield Lahm RgnlMFD43 mi9,001 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK53 mi8,204 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
78
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Other cities in Cleveland, OH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ClevelandCuyahoga County366,09759vs Amherst
ParmaCuyahoga County79,87068vs Amherst
LorainLorain County65,39557vs Amherst
ElyriaLorain County53,03564vs Amherst
LakewoodCuyahoga County50,00777vs Amherst
EuclidCuyahoga County48,82358vs Amherst
MentorLake County47,17174vs Amherst
StrongsvilleCuyahoga County45,98380vs Amherst
Cleveland HeightsCuyahoga County44,49768vs Amherst
North RidgevilleLorain County36,62774vs Amherst
BrunswickMedina County35,24674vs Amherst
WestlakeCuyahoga County34,10477vs Amherst

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
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 Amherst

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4400121,448$90,13978