Grove City, Ohio

Area Profile

42,517 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Grove City, in Franklin County.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 12% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 5% of 3,904 published cities83
Schools1905th of 2,668 published cities35
GrowthTop 30% of 2,973 published cities62
Housing affordabilityTop 16% of 4,223 published cities96
Climate2895th of 4,223 published cities64
Physical resilienceTop 28% of 4,182 published cities77
AccessTop 14% of 4,226 published cities99
Economic stabilityTop 21% of 4,226 published cities73
The quick read

Grove City ranks in the top 5% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.1% and median household income of $93,161.

Residential permitting has slowed: 234 units authorized over the past twelve months, 26% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

At a glance

Population
42,517
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$93,161
Top 23% nationally
Density
2,257/sq mi
18.8 sq mi of land
Median age
41.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Franklin County
Ohio
Metro area
Columbus, OH
Nearest major airport
LCK
10 mi · Rickenbacker Intl
Median home value
$310,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 94% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 23,127 employed residents.

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 75% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,888$93,161Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,309$46,496Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.4%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.5 minBottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.4%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,127Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.6%Top 11%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 28%June 2026
Labor force23,867Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force participation69.4%Top 20%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 rate3.1%Bottom 6%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.12.9
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
202120222023202493k82k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $93,161 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.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 19.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
19
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
52.3%
Bottom 41% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
53.5%
Bottom 38% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Grove City High SchoolSouth-Western City1,88120.4
Central Crossing High SchoolSouth-Western City1,67419.2
Buckeye Woods Elementary SchoolSouth-Western City74220.677%75%
Holt Crossing Intermediate SchoolSouth-Western City73320.932%52%
Bolton Crossing ElementarySouth-Western City71723.145%45%
Beulah Park Middle SchoolSouth-Western City71019.242%47%
Park Street Intermediate SchoolSouth-Western City66718.536%62%
Jackson Middle SchoolSouth-Western City66518.071%63%
Pleasant View Middle SchoolSouth-Western City65114.249%44%
James A Harmon Elementary SchoolSouth-Western City58921.854%44%
JC Sommer Elementary SchoolSouth-Western City54520.274%72%
Highland Park Elementary SchoolSouth-Western City47519.840%32%

52.8% 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 $1,331 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,331
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$310,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.33Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.4%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±71018,486Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$70$1,331Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,334$310,400Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.1%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.4%Bottom 31%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
62/ 100
Top 30% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 grown 7% since 2020, reaching 44,019 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 5.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
234
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.5
Top 27% nationally
Year over year
−26%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202444k41k
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
202020212022202320242025737261
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−48%).

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 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.8 inches.

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 OHIO STATE UNIV AP, 13.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index72.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°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: cold wave, heat wave, inland flooding, 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 Grove City rather than Grove City 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rickenbacker IntlLCK10 mi11,902 ft
John Glenn Columbus IntlCMH13 mi10,114 ft
Wilmington Air ParkILN49 mi10,701 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
73
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Other cities in Columbus, OH

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ColumbusFranklin County914,80266vs Grove City
NewarkLicking County50,783vs Grove City
DublinFranklin County49,29479vs Grove City
DelawareDelaware County44,58976vs Grove City
LancasterFairfield County41,24966vs Grove City
ReynoldsburgFranklin County41,22472vs Grove City
WestervilleFranklin County38,64574vs Grove City
HilliardFranklin County38,03378vs Grove City
Upper ArlingtonFranklin County36,29375vs Grove City
GahannaFranklin County35,48678vs Grove City
MarysvilleUnion County27,518vs Grove City
PickeringtonFairfield County24,47778vs Grove City

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 Grove City

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4312367,626$91,00874