Washington County, OH

County Profile

58,978 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Washington 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.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 13% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity876th of 1,255 counties45
Schools572nd of 973 counties44
Growth1134th of 1,226 counties23
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 46% of 1,254 counties69
Physical resilience1019th of 1,255 counties33
Access1122nd of 1,255 counties52
Economic stability835th of 1,255 counties51
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.8% and median household income $63,603, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 55% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.0 students for every teacher.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, heat wave and strong wind.

At a glance

Population
58,978
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,603
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
93/sq mi
632.0 sq mi of land
Median age
44.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Washington County
Ohio
Metro area
Marietta, OH
Nearest major airport
LCK
80 mi · Rickenbacker Intl
Median home value
$185,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 67% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 26,277 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,544$63,603Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,311$35,495Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.7%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.4 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.9%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,277Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.8%Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 28%June 2026
Labor force27,313Bottom 34%June 2026
Labor force participation58.1%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 4%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 33%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.03.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.8% 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
202120222023202464k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,603 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.

55% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
54.8%
Bottom 42% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
58.7%
Top 49% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Marietta High SchoolMarietta City99517.8
Warren Elementary SchoolWarren Local77919.068%65%
Warren Middle SchoolWarren Local65020.357%66%
Marietta Elementary SchoolMarietta City62817.939%61%
Warren High SchoolWarren Local56517.1
Belpre Elementary SchoolBelpre City48416.748%57%
Waterford Elementary SchoolWolf Creek Local42813.455%59%
Washington County CC Barrett BldWashington County Career Center District39413.6
Belpre High SchoolBelpre City38714.342%52%
Fort Frye Middle SchoolFort Frye Local25617.1
Washington SchoolMarietta City25116.740%51%
Fort Frye High SchoolFort Frye Local22712.672%47%

58.6% 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 $852 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$852
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$185,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.92Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.4%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4227,949Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$852Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,371$185,600Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.1%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.3%Bottom 36%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
23/ 100
Ranks 1134 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 58,332 in 2024.

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

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
3
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
+50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202460k58k
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
2022202320242025183.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−70%).

Weather & climate

6 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 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, 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 PARKERSBURG WOOD CO AP, 7.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation42.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

33 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, heat wave and strong wind.

Inland floodingElevated
Ice stormModerate
Heat waveModerate
DroughtModerate
HailModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, lightning, hurricane, earthquake, tornado, winter weather, wildfire, cold wave.

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.

Washington County records 0.0 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 11.5 per 100,000 residents in Washington County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.5
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 Washington 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 Washington County rather than Washington 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 80 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rickenbacker IntlLCK80 mi11,902 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH83 mi10,114 ft
Pittsburgh IntlPIT98 mi11,500 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
51
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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.

Cities in Washington County, OH