Cambria County, PA

County Profile

131,538 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cambria County, PA.

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.

61out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 46% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity841st of 1,255 counties47
Schools659th of 973 counties37
Growth1137th of 1,226 counties23
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate841st of 1,254 counties62
Physical resilienceTop 2% of 1,255 counties96
Access792nd of 1,255 counties75
Economic stability994th of 1,255 counties41
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.7% and median household income $58,418, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 28% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.7 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
131,538
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,418
Bottom 31% nationally
Density
191/sq mi
688.0 sq mi of land
Median age
45.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cambria County
Pennsylvania
Metro area
Johnstown, PA
Nearest major airport
LBE
40 mi · Arnold Palmer Rgnl
Median home value
$121,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 31% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 2.4% over the past year, to 53,730 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,532$58,418Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,276$34,692Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.2%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.6 minBottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.9%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment53,730Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.8%Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.4%Top 4%June 2026
Labor force56,383Top 42%June 2026
Labor force participation54.3%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 9%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 31%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.53.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.7% 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
202120222023202458k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,418 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 — Johnstown, PA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,740$28,930
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,380$24,750
Retail Salespersons1,370$27,960
Cashiers1,210$27,430
Registered Nurses1,190$84,390
General and Operations Managers1,150$86,370

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.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 49% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
36
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.2%
Bottom 26% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
48.6%
Bottom 23% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Greater Johnstown El SchGreater Johnstown SD1,13316.014%20%
Forest Hills El SchForest Hills SD99414.247%55%
Greater Johnstown SHSGreater Johnstown SD91712.93%22%
Richland El SchRichland SD83115.759%72%
Forest Hills JSHSForest Hills SD79814.312%27%
Westmont Hilltop El SchWestmont Hilltop SD74913.940%49%
Richland HSRichland SD69314.437%67%
Westmont Hilltop JSHSWestmont Hilltop SD68915.032%62%
Greater Johnstown MSGreater Johnstown SD61511.88%22%
Cambria El SchCentral Cambria SD54216.945%62%
Penn Cambria HSPenn Cambria SD53814.5
Cambria Heights El SchCambria Heights SD53312.133%59%

72.4% 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 Pennsylvania’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 $739 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.1 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
15.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$739
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$121,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.07Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.4%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±9164,456Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$19$739Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,848$121,000Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.2%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.2%Bottom 45%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
23/ 100
Ranks 1137 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 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 2% since 2020, reaching 130,108 in 2024.

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

At 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
59
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 5% nationally
Year over year
−3%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024133k130k
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
20222023202420257258
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+7%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JOHNSTOWN CAMBRIA CO AP, 14.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index59.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
59
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

96 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane.

HurricaneModerate

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

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.

Cambria County records 3.1 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 16.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.5 per 100,000 residents in Cambria County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.1
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
11.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
19.1
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 Cambria 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 Cambria County rather than Cambria 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 40 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE40 mi8,222 ft
Pittsburgh IntlPIT80 mi11,500 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT105 mi10,001 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
61
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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.

Cities in Cambria County, PA