University Heights, Ohio

Area Profile

13,394 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for University Heights, in Cuyahoga County.

76out of 100
Area Score
Top 6% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 27% of 3,904 published cities68
Growth1861st of 2,973 published cities43
Housing affordabilityTop 12% of 4,223 published cities99
Climate2282nd of 4,223 published cities69
Physical resilienceTop 2% of 4,182 published cities97
AccessTop 37% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 4,226 published cities61
The quick read

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 19% of median household income and the median home is 2.5 times it.

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

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
13,394
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$96,971
Top 20% nationally
Density
7,335/sq mi
1.8 sq mi of land
Median age
30.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cuyahoga County
Ohio
Metro area
Cleveland, OH
Nearest major airport
CLE
18 mi · Cleveland-Hopkins Intl
Median home value
$242,700
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.

67% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$19,883$96,971Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,183$44,523Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.1%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.7 minBottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher67.5%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment608,361Top 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 37%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 28%June 2026
Labor force631,460Top 11%June 2026
Labor force participation66.6%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$66,310Bottom 35%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,140Bottom 43%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202498k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $96,971 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.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,507 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
18.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,507
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$242,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.50Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.7%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2595,007Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$128$1,507Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,488$242,700Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.6%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 35%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
43/ 100
Ranks 1861 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 fallen 5% since 2020, reaching 13,265 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 0.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
10
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.7
Bottom 26% nationally
Year over year
+43%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
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
202020212022202320242025101.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+900%).

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, 7.9 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.

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.

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.

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 University Heights rather than University Heights 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 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Cleveland-Hopkins IntlCLE18 mi9,953 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK40 mi8,204 ft
Youngstown/Warren RgnlYNG47 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
76
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Other cities in Cleveland, OH

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

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
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.