Cooke County, TX

County Profile

43,046 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cooke County, TX.

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.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 40% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured72
SchoolsTop 40% of 973 counties measured59
Growth872nd of 1,226 counties measured39
Housing affordabilityTop 35% of 1,255 counties measured97
Climate839th of 1,254 counties measured63
Physical resilience787th of 1,255 counties measured51
Access749th of 1,255 counties measured77
Economic stabilityTop 43% of 1,255 counties measured66
The quick read

Cooke County ranks in the top 19% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.9% and median household income of $73,932.

In the public schools here, 44% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.1 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 44 units authorized over the past twelve months, 66% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
43,046
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,932
Top 29% nationally
Density
49/sq mi
874.8 sq mi of land
Median age
40.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cooke County
Texas
Metro area
Gainesville, TX
Nearest major airport
AFW
45 mi · Perot Fld/Fort Worth Alliance
Median home value
$240,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 62% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.7% over the past year, to 21,971 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,874$73,932Top 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,725$38,914Top 30%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$62,773Top 31%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate13.5%Top 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.4 minTop 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.7%Top 44%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,971Bottom 27%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)7.4%Top 2%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.7%Top 20%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force22,869Bottom 27%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation63.5%Top 24%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 38%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.52.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% 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
202120222023202474k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,932 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.

44% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
43.7%
Top 44% in Texas
Reading proficiency
43.5%
Top 40% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
GAINESVILLE H SGAINESVILLE ISD87616.2
W E CHALMERS ELGAINESVILLE ISD70318.527%24%
EDISON ELGAINESVILLE ISD63018.5
CALLISBURG ELCALLISBURG ISD53114.842%44%
ERA SCHOOLERA ISD49912.261%56%
GAINESVILLE INTGAINESVILLE ISD48017.832%32%
GAINESVILLE J HGAINESVILLE ISD42215.647%32%
VALLEY VIEW ELVALLEY VIEW ISD36012.429%32%
CALLISBURG H SCALLISBURG ISD32710.2
MUENSTER ELMUENSTER ISD31115.668%68%
CALLISBURG MIDDLECALLISBURG ISD28714.337%57%
LINDSAY ELLINDSAY ISD26812.849%57%

48.3% 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 Texas’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 $1,047 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,047
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$240,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.25Top 38%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate71.8%Bottom 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6517,944Top 39%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$85$1,047Top 27%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,265$240,400Top 30%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.0%Top 50%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 18%of 3,2222024 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
39/ 100
Ranks 872 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 grown 6% since 2020, reaching 44,258 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
44
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 16% nationally
Year over year
−66%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202444k42k
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
202220232024202519052
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+48%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 96°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DENTON MUNI AP, 29.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation35.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

51 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, drought and hail.

DroughtHigh
HailElevated
WildfireElevated
TornadoModerate
Ice stormModerate
Strong windModerate
LightningModerate
Cold waveModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, inland flooding, landslide, earthquake, hurricane.

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Cooke County records 3.4 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 13.4 per 100,000 residents in Cooke County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.8
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.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cooke 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 Cooke County rather than Cooke 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
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 individualised 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 neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 45 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Perot Fld/Fort Worth AllianceAFW45 mi11,125 ft
Ardmore MuniADM47 mi9,002 ft
Dallas-Fort Worth IntlDFW52 mi13,401 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
65
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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)
IncomeU.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
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)
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

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 Cooke County, TX