Shelby County, OH

County Profile

47,929 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Shelby 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.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 12% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 37% of 1,255 counties61
SchoolsTop 15% of 973 counties79
Growth707th of 1,226 counties46
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate805th of 1,254 counties63
Physical resilienceTop 10% of 1,255 counties88
AccessTop 37% of 1,255 counties87
Economic stabilityTop 27% of 1,255 counties77
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.1% and median household income $73,978, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 284 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Shelby County in the top 10% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
47,929
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,978
Top 28% nationally
Density
118/sq mi
407.7 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Shelby County
Ohio
Metro area
Sidney, OH
Nearest major airport
DAY
30 mi · James M Cox Dayton Intl
Median home value
$208,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 92% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 23,159 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,615$73,978Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,784$37,984Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.6%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.4 minBottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.4%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,159Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.5%Bottom 7%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 43%June 2026
Labor force23,912Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force participation65.5%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.02.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.1% 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
202120222023202474k67k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,978 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.

78% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 73% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
78.5%
Top 2% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
72.9%
Top 7% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sidney Middle SchoolSidney City84017.950%54%
Sidney High SchoolSidney City79117.2
Anna Elementary SchoolAnna Local51617.885%85%
Northwood Intermediate SchoolSidney City43815.656%49%
Fort Loramie Elementary SchoolFort Loramie Local40314.496%84%
Hardin Houston Elementary SchoolHardin-Houston Local39415.871%72%
Emerson Primary SchoolSidney City34020.0
Jackson Center Elementary SchoolJackson Center Local33020.692%84%
Houston High SchoolHardin-Houston Local32614.875%45%
Botkins Elementary SchoolBotkins Local32320.287%81%
Fort Loramie Junior-Senior High SchoolFort Loramie Local31919.998%92%
Whittier Early Childhood CenterSidney City30627.8

51.7% 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 $922 takes 15% 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
15.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$922
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$208,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.81Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.7%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6520,149Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$57$922Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,546$208,100Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.0%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.2%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 707 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 47,952 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

At 5.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
284
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.9
Top 24% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
58.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202448k48k
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
202220232024202552367
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+681%).

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 35.8 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LIMA ALLEN CO AP, 27.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation35.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing46°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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, tornado and cold wave.

EarthquakeHigh
HailModerate
Ice stormModerate
TornadoElevated
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
Cold waveModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, inland flooding, landslide, hurricane, drought, 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.

Shelby 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 12.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.7 per 100,000 residents in Shelby County.

Homicide
2.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.0
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 Shelby 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 Shelby County rather than Shelby 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 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
James M Cox Dayton IntlDAY30 mi8,502 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN66 mi10,701 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH73 mi10,114 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
73
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.

Cities in Shelby County, OH