Van Wert County, OH
County Profile
28,826 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Van Wert 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.
Unemployment is 3.2% and median household income $67,917, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.
Rent takes 14% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.2 times that income.
Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Van Wert County in the top 13% for physical resilience.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.2% is lower than 90% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 13,632 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$3,470 | $67,917 | Top 42%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,152 | $34,583 | Bottom 49%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 9.0% | Bottom 18%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 21.4 min | Bottom 22%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 17.1% | Bottom 23%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 13,632 | Bottom 10%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -6.3% | Bottom 3%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -1.3% | Bottom 35%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 14,079 | Bottom 10%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 64.0% | Top 22%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -1.2% | Bottom 2%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.2% | Bottom 10%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →66% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 12.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van Wert Elementary School | Van Wert City | 692 | 15.7 | 57% | 55% |
| Van Wert High School | Van Wert City | 509 | 17.0 | — | — |
| Vantage Career Center | Vantage Career Center | 489 | 5.8 | — | — |
| Lincolnview Elementary School | Lincolnview Local | 426 | 16.4 | 72% | 71% |
| Van Wert Middle School | Van Wert City | 399 | 13.8 | 32% | 42% |
| Van Wert Early Childhood Center | Van Wert City | 343 | 21.4 | — | — |
| Lincolnview Jr/Sr High School | Lincolnview Local | 343 | 13.7 | 82% | 67% |
| Crestview Elementary School | Crestview Local | 337 | 10.2 | 88% | 83% |
| Jefferson High School | Delphos City | 265 | 14.7 | — | — |
| Crestview High School | Crestview Local | 249 | 8.6 | — | — |
| Jefferson Middle School | Delphos City | 248 | 15.5 | 79% | 73% |
| Crestview Middle School | Crestview Local | 195 | 12.2 | 72% | 77% |
66.5% 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 $782 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.2 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.24 | Bottom 18%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 82.1% | Top 11%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±34 | 12,573 | Top 50%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$64 | $782 | Bottom 30%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$6,904 | $152,000 | Bottom 31%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 13.8% | Bottom 15%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 8.1% | Bottom 19%of 3,222 | 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 →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 28,887 in 2024.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 1.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 85°F and January a low of 18°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 40.4 inches, including 17.1 inches of snow.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 40.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 17.1" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 18°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 85°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 49°F | 1991-2020 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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, earthquake and hail.
Overall hazard risk is lower than 80% of measured US locations.
Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, ice storm, inland flooding, hurricane, winter weather, 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
Van Wert County records 4.1 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 12.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 9.7 per 100,000 residents in Van Wert County.
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 Van Wert 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 Van Wert County rather than Van Wert 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
- 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
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 65 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express | TOL | 65 mi | 10,600 ft |
| James M Cox Dayton Intl | DAY | 69 mi | 8,502 ft |
| Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg Fld | BTL | 106 mi | 10,004 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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Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory 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.