Sharon, Pennsylvania

Area Profile

12,936 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Sharon, in Mercer County.

55out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2669th of 3,904 published cities47
Schools1871st of 2,668 published cities36
Growth2950th of 2,973 published cities7
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 4,223 published cities91
Climate3150th of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilienceTop 34% of 4,182 published cities72
AccessTop 8% of 4,226 published cities99
Economic stability3844th of 4,226 published cities32
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $45,670, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 16% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 9.9 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 10 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
12,936
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,670
Bottom 17% nationally
Density
3,429/sq mi
3.8 sq mi of land
Median age
43.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mercer County
Pennsylvania
Metro area
Hermitage, PA
Nearest major airport
YNG
10 mi · Youngstown/Warren Rgnl
Median home value
$78,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 51% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 2.1% over the past year, to 44,155 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,670 is below 83% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,603$45,670Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,032$26,858Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate20.0%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.3 minBottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.4%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment44,155Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.0%Bottom 21%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.1%Top 5%June 2026
Labor force46,124Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force participation55.8%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 49%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202446k36k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,670 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 Mercer County, PA, which contains this city.

16% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 9.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
9.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
15.6%
Bottom 18% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
38.5%
Bottom 22% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sharon HSSharon City SD5329.9
Case Avenue El SchSharon City SD48310.323%48%
Musser El SchSharon City SD32411.212%29%
Sharon MSSharon City SD2548.28%47%
West Hill El SchSharon City SD2459.814%25%

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 $827 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 1.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
1.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$827
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$78,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income1.73Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.0%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3157,000Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$140$827Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,718$78,800Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.7%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.1%Top 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
7/ 100
Ranks 2950 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 12,744 in 2024.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k13k
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
20222023202420250.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.2 inches, including 67.8 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, 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 YOUNGSTOWN RGNL AP, 9.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall67.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
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

72 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, strong wind and winter weather.

Inland floodingModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, hail, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, landslide, ice storm, wildfire, cold wave.

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.

Mercer 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 13.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.0 per 100,000 residents in Mercer County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.4
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 Mercer 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 Sharon rather than Sharon 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 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Youngstown/Warren RgnlYNG10 mi9,003 ft
Pittsburgh IntlPIT53 mi11,500 ft
Akron-Canton RgnlCAK54 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
55
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Other cities in Hermitage, PA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
HermitageMercer County16,04167vs Sharon

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.

Compare

Put Sharon side by side with a similar place.

Sharon vs AuburnSharon vs LackawannaSharon vs GreenvilleSharon vs Salem

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.

ZIP codes in Sharon

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1614612,936$45,67055