Norwalk, Ohio

Area Profile

17,095 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Norwalk, in Huron County.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 24% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2380th of 3,904 published cities51
SchoolsTop 35% of 2,668 published cities63
GrowthTop 49% of 2,973 published cities51
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 published cities100
Climate2476th of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilienceTop 20% of 4,182 published cities82
Access2807th of 4,226 published cities87
Economic stability2978th of 4,226 published cities49
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $60,844, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

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 2.7 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Norwalk in the top 20% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
17,095
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$60,844
Bottom 40% nationally
Density
1,928/sq mi
8.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Huron County
Ohio
Metro area
Norwalk, OH
Nearest major airport
MFD
30 mi · Mansfield Lahm Rgnl
Median home value
$163,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 84% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 27,792 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,744$60,844Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,139$31,816Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.3%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.5 minBottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.4%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,792Bottom 36%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.5%Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force28,798Bottom 35%June 2026
Labor force participation61.9%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202461k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $60,844 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.

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

67% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
67.4%
Top 24% in Ohio
Reading proficiency
64.2%
Top 32% in Ohio
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Norwalk High SchoolNorwalk City69921.8
Maplehurst Elementary SchoolNorwalk City46019.2
Pleasant Elementary SchoolNorwalk City39518.872%77%
Main Street SchoolNorwalk City37518.867%67%
Norwalk Middle SchoolNorwalk City33211.957%47%
League Elementary SchoolNorwalk City19219.277%62%

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 $836 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$836
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$163,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.68Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.1%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3657,898Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$58$836Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,687$163,300Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.5%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 33%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
51/ 100
Top 49% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 1% since 2020, reaching 17,172 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward 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 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
40
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Top 50% nationally
Year over year
+471%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
2020202120222023202420251049.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+300%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 34.0 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SANDUSKY, 15.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation34.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing47°F1991-2020 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

82 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 71% of measured US cities.

HailModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windElevated
Ice stormModerate
TornadoModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, inland flooding, earthquake, cold wave, landslide, hurricane, wildfire, 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.

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.

Huron County records 2.8 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 10.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.4 per 100,000 residents in Huron County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.8
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 Huron 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 Norwalk rather than Norwalk 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 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mansfield Lahm RgnlMFD30 mi9,001 ft
Cleveland-Hopkins IntlCLE41 mi9,953 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK65 mi8,204 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
68
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Put Norwalk side by side with a similar place.

Norwalk vs DoverNorwalk vs SidneyNorwalk vs New PhiladelphiaNorwalk vs La Porte

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

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 Norwalk

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
4485723,288$64,29768