Gahanna, Ohio

Area Profile

35,486 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gahanna, in Franklin County.

78out of 100
Area Score
Top 3% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 4% of 3,904 published cities83
SchoolsTop 44% of 2,668 published cities56
GrowthTop 6% of 2,973 published cities79
Housing affordabilityTop 13% of 4,223 published cities98
Climate2440th of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilienceTop 28% of 4,182 published cities77
AccessTop 8% of 4,226 published cities99
Economic stabilityTop 12% of 4,226 published cities77
The quick read

Gahanna ranks in the top 4% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.3% and median household income of $109,061.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 359 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 8875% on the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 16% of median household income and the median home is 3.2 times it.

At a glance

Population
35,486
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$109,061
Top 14% nationally
Density
2,854/sq mi
12.4 sq mi of land
Median age
38.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Franklin County
Ohio
Metro area
Columbus, OH
Nearest major airport
CMH
3 mi · John Glenn Columbus Intl
Median home value
$350,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 89% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 18,714 employed residents.

52% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US cities.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,421$109,061Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,709$54,374Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.6%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.7 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.7%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,714Bottom 22%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 24%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 28%June 2026
Labor force19,357Bottom 22%June 2026
Labor force participation68.7%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,270Bottom 45%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,340Top 49%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 4%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.22.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.3% 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
2021202220232024109k96k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $109,061 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.

60% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 66% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
60.3%
Top 43% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
66.4%
Top 28% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lincoln High SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City2,468
Lincoln Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City73021.549%57%
Gahanna East Middle SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City66018.967%77%
Gahanna South Middle SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City65319.877%67%
Gahanna West Middle SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City60816.952%57%
High Point Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City55519.181%87%
Goshen Lane Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City46417.835%54%
Jefferson Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City43718.265%74%
Royal Manor Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City42316.951%54%
Chapelfield Elementary SchoolGahanna-Jefferson City40914.160%69%
Gahanna- Jefferson Clark HallGahanna-Jefferson City17614.7

36.0% 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 $1,466 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,466
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$350,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.22Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.6%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±52514,673Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$56$1,466Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,156$350,900Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.1%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.9%Bottom 19%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
79/ 100
Top 6% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 35,544 in 2024.

97% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 10.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
359
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
10.1
Top 13% nationally
Year over year
+8875%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
96.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202436k35k
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
2020202120222023202420253292.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+226%).

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 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.6 inches, including 28.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 53, in the Moderate band, and about 4 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 COLUMBUS PORT COLUMBUS INTL AP, 3.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index72.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall28.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
53
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
72
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

77 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
TornadoModerate

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

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.

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.

Franklin County records 6.7 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 12.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 24.4 per 100,000 residents in Franklin County.

Homicide
6.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
24.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.8
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 Franklin 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 Gahanna rather than Gahanna 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH3 mi10,114 ft
Rickenbacker IntlLCK16 mi11,902 ft
Mansfield Lahm RgnlMFD57 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
78
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Other cities in Columbus, OH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ColumbusFranklin County914,80266vs Gahanna
NewarkLicking County50,783vs Gahanna
DublinFranklin County49,29479vs Gahanna
DelawareDelaware County44,58976vs Gahanna
Grove CityFranklin County42,51773vs Gahanna
LancasterFairfield County41,24966vs Gahanna
ReynoldsburgFranklin County41,22472vs Gahanna
WestervilleFranklin County38,64574vs Gahanna
HilliardFranklin County38,03378vs Gahanna
Upper ArlingtonFranklin County36,29375vs Gahanna
MarysvilleUnion County27,518vs Gahanna
PickeringtonFairfield County24,47778vs Gahanna

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
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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Gahanna

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4323058,076$91,42478