Blue Ash, Ohio

Area Profile

13,455 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Blue Ash, in Hamilton County.

79out of 100
Area Score
Top 2% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 3,904 cities measured81
SchoolsTop 10% of 2,668 cities measured83
GrowthTop 47% of 2,973 cities measured52
Housing affordabilityTop 21% of 4,223 cities measured94
Climate2268th of 4,223 cities measured69
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 4,182 cities measured89
AccessTop 48% of 4,226 cities measured92
Economic stabilityTop 20% of 4,226 cities measured74
The quick read

Blue Ash ranks in the top 7% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $115,313.

33 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 11% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Blue Ash in the top 13% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
13,455
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$115,313
Top 12% nationally
Density
1,774/sq mi
7.6 sq mi of land
Median age
38.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hamilton County
Ohio
Metro area
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
Nearest major airport
CVG
20 mi · Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Intl
Median home value
$403,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 421,006 employed residents.

67% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$10,716$115,313Top 12%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,692$64,458Top 8%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.0%Bottom 19%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.1 minBottom 26%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher67.0%Top 4%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment421,006Top 18%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 35%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 16%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force437,021Top 18%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation66.9%Top 27%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,370Bottom 46%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,170Bottom 44%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 2%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024117k104k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $115,313 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 — Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers30,950$29,720
General and Operations Managers29,330$100,670
Retail Salespersons28,670$30,810
Registered Nurses28,520$83,650
Stockers and Order Fillers26,870$37,810
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand22,910$40,240

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 Hamilton County, OH, which contains this city.

83% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 87% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
83.2%
Top 6% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
86.6%
Top 2% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sycamore High SchoolSycamore Community City1,67815.4
Edwin H Greene Intermediate Middle SchoolSycamore Community City99618.169%88%
Sycamore Junior High SchoolSycamore Community City92120.589%83%
Maple Dale Elementary SchoolSycamore Community City58418.387%84%
Montgomery Elementary SchoolSycamore Community City56618.394%92%

17.9% 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 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 $1,555 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
16.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,555
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$403,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.50Top 36%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.9%Bottom 28%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3096,142Top 10%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$138$1,555Top 19%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$30,567$403,200Top 18%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.2%Bottom 32%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 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
52/ 100
Top 47% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 13,616 in 2024.

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

At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
33
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.5
Top 48% nationally
Year over year
−11%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202414k13k
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
2020202120222023202420254432
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−5%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 52, in the Moderate band, and about 11 days a year pass 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 CINCINNATI LUNKEN AP, 10.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100112024 calendar year
Median air quality index52.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
52
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
71
90th percentile index
Days above 100
11
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 tornado and strong wind.

TornadoElevated
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, cold wave, inland flooding, lightning, landslide, winter weather, hail, earthquake, ice storm, wildfire, hurricane, drought.

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.

Hamilton County records 9.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.1 per 100,000 residents in Hamilton County.

Homicide
9.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.3
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 Hamilton 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 Blue Ash rather than Blue Ash 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky IntlCVG20 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN34 mi10,701 ft
James M Cox Dayton IntlDAY46 mi8,502 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
79
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Other cities in Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
CincinnatiHamilton County311,22465vs Blue Ash
HamiltonButler County63,46864vs Blue Ash
MiddletownButler County51,61766vs Blue Ash
FairfieldButler County44,82865vs Blue Ash
CovingtonKenton County41,11066vs Blue Ash
MasonWarren County35,50982vs Blue Ash
FlorenceBoone County32,803vs Blue Ash
IndependenceKenton County29,39277vs Blue Ash
OxfordButler County21,75359vs Blue Ash
LebanonWarren County21,50177vs Blue Ash
Forest ParkHamilton County20,02570vs Blue Ash
SpringboroWarren County19,98083vs Blue Ash

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 Blue Ash

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4524222,623$124,56779