Fairfield County, OH

County Profile

163,453 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fairfield 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.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 11% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 1,255 counties82
Schools605th of 973 counties41
GrowthTop 37% of 1,226 counties57
Housing affordabilityTop 37% of 1,255 counties97
Climate796th of 1,254 counties63
Physical resilienceTop 16% of 1,255 counties84
AccessTop 15% of 1,255 counties95
Economic stabilityTop 14% of 1,255 counties86
The quick read

Fairfield County ranks in the top 7% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.3% and median household income of $90,966.

Residential permitting has slowed: 588 units authorized over the past twelve months, 50% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Fairfield County in the top 16% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
163,453
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$90,966
Top 9% nationally
Density
324/sq mi
504.4 sq mi of land
Median age
39.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Fairfield County
Ohio
Metro area
Columbus, OH
Nearest major airport
LCK
17 mi · Rickenbacker Intl
Median home value
$298,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 86% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 81,749 employed residents.

32% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 91% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,392$90,966Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,112$41,813Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.0%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.9 minTop 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.3%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment81,749Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.6%Top 23%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 30%June 2026
Labor force84,561Top 31%June 2026
Labor force participation64.1%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.33.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.3% 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
202120222023202491k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $90,966 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 — Columbus, OH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers31,590$28,670
Registered Nurses30,510$83,900
Stockers and Order Fillers30,130$39,040
General and Operations Managers29,070$102,590
Home Health and Personal Care Aides27,580$34,880
Retail Salespersons26,850$33,780

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.

55% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 61% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
44
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
54.7%
Bottom 41% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
60.8%
Top 39% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lancaster High SchoolLancaster City1,99521.5
Pickerington High School NorthPickerington Local1,76119.8
Pickerington High School CentralPickerington Local1,71119.4
Pickerington Ridgeview Junior High SchoolPickerington Local94819.054%58%
Toll Gate ElementaryPickerington Local94819.874%75%
Pickerington Lakeview Junior HighPickerington Local92218.860%73%
Bloom-Carroll High SchoolBloom-Carroll Local69724.0
General Sherman Junior High SchoolLancaster City69319.852%42%
Sycamore Creek Elementary SchoolPickerington Local65215.972%67%
Tussing Elementary SchoolPickerington Local64718.552%50%
Thomas Ewing Junior High SchoolLancaster City64318.442%52%
Harmon Middle SchoolPickerington Local63220.442%67%

41.2% 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 $1,172 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,172
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$298,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.28Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.9%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±9964,036Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$29$1,172Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,981$298,800Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.5%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.7%Bottom 8%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
57/ 100
Top 37% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 grown 5% since 2020, reaching 167,762 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

At 3.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
588
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.6
Top 42% nationally
Year over year
−50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
35.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024168k159k
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
20222023202420251k439
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+124%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 20°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.3 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LANCASTER FAIRFIELD AP, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation40.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing44°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

84 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
HailModerate
Winter weatherModerate
DroughtModerate
Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

Fairfield County records 2.2 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 13.3 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 Fairfield County.

Homicide
2.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
15.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
16.3
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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield County rather than Fairfield 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rickenbacker IntlLCK17 mi11,902 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH22 mi10,114 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN66 mi10,701 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
74
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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.