State College, Pennsylvania

Area Profile

41,050 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for State College, in Centre County.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 38% of 2,943 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Data updated · 14 sources
OpportunityTop 34% of 3,899 cities measured64
SchoolsTop 5% of 2,668 cities measured87
GrowthTop 18% of 2,973 cities measured69
Housing affordability4,127th of 4,147 cities measured21
Climate2,968th of 4,223 cities measured63
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 4,182 cities measured89
Access3,997th of 4,226 cities measured56
Economic stability4,193rd of 4,226 cities measured16
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 180 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 5900% on the prior year.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 34% of median household income and the median home is 9.6 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing State College in the top 13% for physical resilience.

These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.

At a glance

Population
41,050
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,424
Bottom 16% nationally
Density
8,967/sq mi
4.6 sq mi of land
Median age
21.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Centre County
Pennsylvania
Metro area
State College, PA
Nearest major airport
MDT
71 mi · Harrisburg Intl
Median home value
$437,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 5.6% over the past year, to 16,597 employed residents.

68% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $45,424 is below 84% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,688$45,424Bottom 16%of 29,4632024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,457$24,746Bottom 19%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate38.1%Top 6%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute16.9 minBottom 9%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher68.4%Top 4%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,597Bottom 18%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.0%Top 22%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)5.6%Top 1%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force17,364Bottom 18%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation45.6%Bottom 15%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$62,190Bottom 23%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,220Bottom 35%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.02.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% 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
202120222023202447k43k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,424 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 — State College, PA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,320$27,790
Retail Salespersons1,710$29,240
General and Operations Managers1,470$91,120
Office Clerks, General1,460$43,920
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,380$29,950
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners1,360$35,850

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.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 67% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.4 students for every full-time teacher across 9 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.6%
Top 13% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
66.8%
Top 16% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
State College Area HSState College Area SD2,40211.6
Mount Nittany MSState College Area SD75211.827%62%
Mount Nittany El SchState College Area SD41312.958%68%
Spring Creek El SchState College Area SD36013.878%82%
Young Scholars of Central PA CS · charterYoung Scholars of Central PA CS3217.837%56%
Easterly Parkway El SchState College Area SD31410.156%61%
Corl Street El SchState College Area SD25011.972%83%
Centre Learning Community CS · charterCentre Learning Community CS6713.410%50%
Nittany Valley CS · charterNittany Valley CS517.3

24.6% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 6% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 93.7, against 100 for the nation. Housing drives most of that difference.

A new two-bedroom lease runs about $1,406, some 10% above the $1,273 tenants already here pay — the market has moved faster than sitting tenancies have.

Median rent of $1,273 takes 34% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home at $437,800 costs 9.6 times the median household income of $45,424, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
93.7

Prices here run about 6% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
33.6%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
9.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Market rent, two bedroom
$1,406
what a new lease costs · FY2026
Median gross rent
$1,273
what tenants now pay · 2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$437,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index93.7Bottom 21%of 3,6582023
Home price to income9.64Top 1%of 27,9722024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate26.1%Bottom 2%of 31,7172024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±50413,261Top 4%of 32,1772024 ACS 5-Year
Market rent, one bedroom$1,194Bottom 36%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, three bedroom$1,760Bottom 32%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, two bedroom$1,406Bottom 35%of 4,067FY2026
Median gross rent ±$55$1,273Top 29%of 23,3292024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$24,405$437,800Top 15%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income33.6%Top 4%of 22,8042024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.1%Top 34%of 31,8722024 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
69/ 100
Top 18% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting has been falling for the last 4 years of a series running from 2020 to 2025. That is the direction of the recent run, not a comparison of the two endpoints.

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 41,228 in 2024.

Permit activity fell in each of the 4 calendar years through 2025. Over the twelve months since, it has turned the other way — 5900% above the year before.

99% of the 180 units permitted over the past twelve months are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
180
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.4
Top 33% nationally
Year over year
+5900%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
98.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202441k41k
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
2020202120222023202420254282.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+100%).

Weather & climate

5 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 21°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.5 inches, including 43.8 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 STATE COLLEGE, 0.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall43.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low21°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°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
58
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 modeled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — a little over half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and about a fifth of all US counties do, 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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
HurricaneModerate

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

Violent crime
153
per 100,000 residents · 2024 calendar year
Property crime
768
per 100,000 residents · 2024 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

State College's police department reported 153 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 768.

Centre County records 1.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 7.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.9 per 100,000 residents in Centre County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.8
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.

Reported by State College Police Department for a population of 57,580, across all twelve months of 2024. That department covers a noticeably different population from the 41,050 in this place itself, so it polices an area wider or narrower than the boundary used elsewhere on this page. Offenses are published by police department rather than by town, so this department was matched to this city by name within the state. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police.

Offenses are reported to the FBI by State College’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Centre County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city center and a quiet suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around State College rather than State College 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

Some things people look for are not on this page, and each is absent for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighborhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Harrisburg Intl at 71 miles.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Harrisburg IntlMDT71 mi10,001 ft
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE89 mi8,222 ft
Elmira/Corning RgnlELM107 mi8,001 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
64
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
SafetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2024 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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
HousingU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
Fair Market Rents
FY2026Annually, each October for the coming fiscal year
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 State College

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1680140,774$61,83669
1680214,793