Licking County, OH

County Profile

181,837 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Licking 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.

72out of 100
Area Score
Top 17% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 12% of 1,255 counties77
Schools544th of 973 counties45
Growth695th of 1,226 counties46
Housing affordabilityTop 36% of 1,255 counties97
Climate773rd of 1,254 counties64
Physical resilienceTop 18% of 1,255 counties82
AccessTop 24% of 1,255 counties92
Economic stabilityTop 26% of 1,255 counties77
The quick read

Licking County ranks in the top 12% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $84,426.

In the public schools here, 58% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.0 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Licking County in the top 18% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
181,837
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$84,426
Top 14% nationally
Density
266/sq mi
682.4 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Licking County
Ohio
Metro area
Columbus, OH
Nearest major airport
CMH
23 mi · John Glenn Columbus Intl
Median home value
$275,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 89,710 employed residents.

29% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 75% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,405$84,426Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,228$42,609Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.2%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.2 minTop 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.3%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment89,710Top 28%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 31%June 2026
Labor force92,872Top 28%June 2026
Labor force participation63.1%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.32.9
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
202120222023202484k73k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $84,426 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.

58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
56
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
58.2%
Top 46% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
59.1%
Top 47% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Licking Heights High SchoolLicking Heights Local1,42821.3
Watkins Memorial High SchoolSouthwest Licking Local1,39722.2
Newark High SchoolNewark City1,36919.8
Watkins Middle SchoolSouthwest Licking Local1,14719.852%52%
Licking Valley Elementary SchoolLicking Valley Local91319.463%62%
Granville High SchoolGranville Exempted Village84521.1
Summit Station IntermediateLicking Heights Local83617.827%62%
Licking Heights Middle SchoolLicking Heights Local82019.552%53%
Watkins Intermediate SchoolSouthwest Licking Local80121.169%68%
Career and Technology Educational CentersCareer and Technology Educational Centers78919.2
Lima Ridge ElementaryLicking Heights Local74517.3
Granville Elementary SchoolGranville Exempted Village67917.487%77%

43.2% 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 $1,078 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
15.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,078
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$275,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.26Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.7%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±7573,273Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$34$1,078Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,562$275,200Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.3%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 11%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
46/ 100
Ranks 695 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 4 consecutive years, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 184,898 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 4 consecutive years.

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

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

At 0.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
172
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.9
Bottom 14% nationally
Year over year
+9%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024185k179k
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
202020212022202320242025363151
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−48%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 38.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, 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 NEWARK HEATH AP, 4.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation38.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
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

82 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
Ice stormModerate
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

Licking County records 1.7 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 13.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.1 per 100,000 residents in Licking County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.1
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
13.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
19.7
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 Licking 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 Licking County rather than Licking 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 23 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH23 mi10,114 ft
Rickenbacker IntlLCK30 mi11,902 ft
Mansfield Lahm RgnlMFD50 mi9,001 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
72
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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
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.