East Cleveland, Ohio

Area Profile

13,534 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for East Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 18% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2973rd of 3,904 cities measured44
Schools2476th of 2,668 cities measured17
Growth2785th of 2,973 cities measured18
Housing affordability3814th of 4,223 cities measured49
Climate2282nd of 4,223 cities measured69
Physical resilienceTop 2% of 4,182 cities measured97
AccessTop 37% of 4,226 cities measured95
Economic stability4211th of 4,226 cities measured13
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.7% and the Opportunity signal places East Cleveland in the bottom 24%.

Rent takes 42% of median household income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing East Cleveland in the top 2% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
13,534
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$22,116
Bottom 1% nationally
Density
4,390/sq mi
3.1 sq mi of land
Median age
44.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cuyahoga County
Ohio
Metro area
Cleveland, OH
Nearest major airport
CLE
17 mi · Cleveland-Hopkins Intl
Median home value
$68,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 608,361 employed residents.

Median household income of $22,116 is below 99% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,740$22,116Bottom 1%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,109$22,734Bottom 14%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate40.7%Top 5%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.5 minBottom 49%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.3%Bottom 41%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment608,361Top 11%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 37%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 28%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force631,460Top 11%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation50.8%Bottom 23%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,310Bottom 35%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,140Bottom 43%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 8%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202423k22k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $22,116 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 — Cleveland, OH
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers29,510$97,750
Registered Nurses28,240$83,940
Fast Food and Counter Workers28,010$28,750
Retail Salespersons24,650$31,000
Stockers and Order Fillers22,660$36,290
Home Health and Personal Care Aides19,400$34,520

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Cuyahoga County, OH, which contains this city.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 26% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.2%
Bottom 4% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
26.0%
Bottom 4% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Apex Academy · charterApex Academy49517.736%42%
Shaw High SchoolEast Cleveland City School District42010.5
Euclid Park Elementary SchoolCleveland Municipal26617.710%16%
Caledonia Elementary SchoolEast Cleveland City School District24514.4
W.H. Kirk Middle SchoolEast Cleveland City School District19412.98%8%
Kenneth W ClementCleveland Municipal14320.410%24%
Mayfair Elementary SchoolEast Cleveland City School District13014.43%16%
Superior School for the Performing ArtsEast Cleveland City School District11811.8
Prospect AcademyEast Cleveland City School District7011.7

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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 7% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $776 takes 42% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
92.9

Prices here run about 7% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
42.1%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$776
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$68,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index92.9Bottom 17%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.11Top 45%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate37.1%Bottom 4%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5369,849Top 6%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$32$776Bottom 25%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,744$68,800Bottom 7%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income42.1%Top 1%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate30.3%Top 12%of 32,0012024 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
18/ 100
Ranks 2785 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 13,402 in 2024.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202414k13k
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
2020202120222023202420250.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 33.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 54, in the Moderate band, and about 6 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CLEVELAND BURKE AP, 5.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index77.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation33.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10062024 calendar year
Median air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
54
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
77
90th percentile index
Days above 100
6
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

97 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado and winter weather.

TornadoModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, inland flooding, heat wave, strong wind, lightning, ice storm, earthquake, hurricane, wildfire, hail, landslide, coastal flooding.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
1,713
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
2,952
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

East Cleveland's police department reported 1,713 violent offences per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 2,952.

Cuyahoga County records 11.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.5 per 100,000 residents in Cuyahoga County.

Homicide
11.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.3
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by East Cleveland’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cuyahoga 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 East Cleveland rather than East Cleveland 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.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cleveland-Hopkins IntlCLE17 mi9,953 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK43 mi8,204 ft
Youngstown/Warren RgnlYNG50 mi9,003 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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Other cities in Cleveland, OH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ClevelandCuyahoga County366,09759vs East Cleveland
ParmaCuyahoga County79,87068vs East Cleveland
LorainLorain County65,39557vs East Cleveland
ElyriaLorain County53,03564vs East Cleveland
LakewoodCuyahoga County50,00777vs East Cleveland
EuclidCuyahoga County48,82358vs East Cleveland
MentorLake County47,17174vs East Cleveland
StrongsvilleCuyahoga County45,98380vs East Cleveland
Cleveland HeightsCuyahoga County44,49768vs East Cleveland
North RidgevilleLorain County36,62774vs East Cleveland
BrunswickMedina County35,24674vs East Cleveland
WestlakeCuyahoga County34,10477vs East Cleveland

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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.

ZIP codes in East Cleveland

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4411217,848$28,79954