Erie County, OH

County Profile

74,581 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Erie County, OH.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 28% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 17% of 1,255 counties73
Schools691st of 973 counties34
Growth1017th of 1,226 counties31
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate632nd of 1,254 counties68
Physical resilienceTop 8% of 1,255 counties90
AccessTop 49% of 1,255 counties82
Economic stability749th of 1,255 counties55
The quick read

Erie County ranks in the top 17% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $71,993.

In the public schools here, 54% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.4 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Erie County in the top 8% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
74,581
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$71,993
Top 32% nationally
Density
297/sq mi
251.3 sq mi of land
Median age
45.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Erie County
Ohio
Metro area
Sandusky, OH
Nearest major airport
CLE
38 mi · Cleveland-Hopkins Intl
Median home value
$199,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 83% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 1.1% over the past year, to 38,459 employed residents.

29% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,166$71,993Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,847$40,578Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.0%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.7 minBottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.0%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment38,459Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.2%Bottom 44%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.1%Top 15%June 2026
Labor force39,807Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force participation61.7%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 4%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.73.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.4% 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
202120222023202472k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $71,993 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 — Sandusky, OH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,070$27,590
Cashiers1,690$28,530
Retail Salespersons1,510$31,000
Waiters and Waitresses1,400$34,610
General and Operations Managers1,380$81,790
Stockers and Order Fillers960$35,290

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.

54% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 57% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
26
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
54.4%
Bottom 37% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
57.3%
Bottom 44% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sandusky High SchoolSandusky City1,02817.7
The Sandusky Intermediate SchoolSandusky City89215.625%37%
Bellevue Elementary SchoolBellevue City77917.365%63%
Ehove Career CenterEHOVE Career Center73166.5
Vermilion High SchoolVermilion Local58017.662%47%
Perkins High SchoolPerkins Local53918.0
Margaretta High SchoolMargaretta Local53617.342%67%
Margaretta Elementary SchoolMargaretta Local53616.864%65%
Edison Middle School (formerly Berlin-Milan Middle School)Edison Local (formerly Berlin-Milan)52516.971%70%
Edison Elementary School (formerly Milan Elem)Edison Local (formerly Berlin-Milan)52518.167%67%
Woodlands Elementary SchoolHuron City Schools52319.470%78%
Vermilion Elementary SchoolVermilion Local51118.957%62%

39.4% 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 $933 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
15.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$933
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$199,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.77Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.9%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±8638,534Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$23$933Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,490$199,700Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.6%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.7%Top 43%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
31/ 100
Ranks 1017 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 73,841 in 2024.

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

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

At 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
155
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 36% nationally
Year over year
0%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202475k74k
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
2022202320242025275128
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−46%).

Weather & climate

6 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 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.0 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SANDUSKY, 7.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation34.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing47°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

90 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
HailModerate
Ice stormModerate
TornadoElevated
Strong windElevated
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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 3.1 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 14.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 residents in Erie County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.9
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
12.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.9
per 100,000 residents

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 Erie County rather than Erie County 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 38 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cleveland-Hopkins IntlCLE38 mi9,953 ft
Mansfield Lahm RgnlMFD40 mi9,001 ft
Eugene F Kranz Toledo ExpressTOL65 mi10,600 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
68
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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.