Klamath County, OR

County Profile

70,247 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Klamath County, OR.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

42out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 2% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1149th of 1,255 counties30
Schools800th of 973 counties25
Growth906th of 1,226 counties37
Housing affordability1011th of 1,255 counties75
Climate970th of 1,254 counties60
Physical resilience1004th of 1,255 counties34
Access1099th of 1,255 counties55
Economic stability1144th of 1,255 counties30
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 6.8% and the Opportunity signal places Klamath County in the bottom 8%.

Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 4.8 times it — each just short of the thresholds that would count as strained, but both toward the costly end.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, earthquake and wildfire.

At a glance

Population
70,247
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,830
Bottom 32% nationally
Density
12/sq mi
5949.9 sq mi of land
Median age
41.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Klamath County
Oregon
Metro area
Klamath Falls, OR
Nearest major airport
MFR
66 mi · Rogue Valley Intl/Medford
Median home value
$280,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.8% is lower than 3% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 27,548 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,154$58,830Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,715$32,883Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.3%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.3 minBottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.7%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,548Bottom 36%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force29,565Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force participation50.9%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 37%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.8%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.34.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.8% 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
202120222023202459k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,830 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.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 32% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
28
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
25.3%
Bottom 40% in Oregon
Reading proficiency
31.7%
Bottom 10% in Oregon
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Henley High SchoolKlamath County SD72019.5
Mazama High SchoolKlamath County SD69015.7
Klamath Union High SchoolKlamath Falls City Schools67119.7
Peterson Elementary SchoolKlamath County SD57321.237%32%
Ponderosa Middle SchoolKlamath Falls City Schools56120.022%42%
Ferguson Elementary SchoolKlamath County SD52419.427%27%
Shasta Elementary SchoolKlamath County SD50520.217%37%
Henley Elementary SchoolKlamath County SD49317.042%42%
Henley Middle SchoolKlamath County SD41320.617%
Brixner Junior High SchoolKlamath County SD39616.512%
Stearns Elementary SchoolKlamath County SD35414.215%25%
Roosevelt Elementary SchoolKlamath Falls City Schools34426.555%35%

95.0% 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 Oregon’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 $991 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$991
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$280,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.77Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.4%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4533,162Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$40$991Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,395$280,400Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.2%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.6%Bottom 42%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
37/ 100
Ranks 906 of 1,226 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 1% since 2020, reaching 70,438 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 1.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
127
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.8
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
−12%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202470k70k
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
202020212022202320242025232103
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−32%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 11.1 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 33, in the Good band, and about 16 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 KLAMATH FALLS INTL AP, 37.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index76.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation11.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100162024 calendar year
Median air quality index33.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
33
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
76
90th percentile index
Days above 100
16
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

34 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and wildfire.

EarthquakeElevated
WildfireElevated
Volcanic activityModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, avalanche, cold wave, lightning, hail, drought, ice storm, strong wind, tornado.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Klamath County records 7.1 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 34.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.3 per 100,000 residents in Klamath County.

Homicide
7.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
34.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
14.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
34.3
per 100,000 residents

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 Klamath 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 Klamath County rather than Klamath County 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 66 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rogue Valley Intl/MedfordMFR66 mi8,800 ft
Mahlon Sweet FldEUG127 mi8,009 ft
Portland IntlPDX206 mi11,000 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
42
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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
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.