Denton County, TX

County Profile

979,561 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Denton 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.

75out of 100
Area Score
Top 8% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured72
SchoolsTop 12% of 973 counties measured81
GrowthTop 12% of 1,226 counties measured72
Housing affordability779th of 1,255 counties measured88
Climate839th of 1,254 counties measured63
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties measured67
AccessTop 20% of 1,255 counties measured93
Economic stabilityTop 3% of 1,255 counties measured96
The quick read

Denton County ranks in the top 19% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.4% and median household income of $111,498.

9,355 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 12% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
979,561
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,498
Top 3% nationally
Density
1,115/sq mi
878.8 sq mi of land
Median age
37.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Denton County
Texas
Metro area
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
Nearest major airport
AFW
19 mi · Perot Fld/Fort Worth Alliance
Median home value
$437,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 42% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 581,635 employed residents.

49% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 97% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 97% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,485$111,498Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$673$54,690Top 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$77,601Top 11%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate7.1%Bottom 7%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.2 minTop 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher49.4%Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment581,635Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.6%Top 11%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 40%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force608,429Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation71.8%Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 19%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 42%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.13.1
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
2021202220232024111k96k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,498 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 — Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers128,380$28,070
General and Operations Managers125,090$111,010
Stockers and Order Fillers111,100$37,590
Retail Salespersons100,340$33,400
Customer Service Representatives96,930$44,990
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand81,940$38,510

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.

48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
233
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.4%
Top 18% in Texas
Reading proficiency
51.4%
Top 5% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
LEWISVILLE H SLEWISVILLE ISD4,00113.3
HEBRON H SLEWISVILLE ISD3,66816.8
FLOWER MOUND H SLEWISVILLE ISD3,42616.1
MARCUS H SLEWISVILLE ISD2,99814.9
BYRON NELSON H SNORTHWEST ISD2,96918.8
RAY BRASWELL H SDENTON ISD2,81215.5
NORTHWEST H SNORTHWEST ISD2,67217.4
GUYER H SDENTON ISD2,57715.2
LITTLE ELM H SLITTLE ELM ISD2,51916.0
WAKELAND H SFRISCO ISD2,23017.0
REEDY H SFRISCO ISD2,20117.1
DENTON H SDENTON ISD2,08314.6

35.1% 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 $1,728 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,728
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$437,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.92Top 21%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.5%Bottom 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±266376,754Top 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$18$1,728Top 4%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$3,514$437,200Top 6%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.6%Top 33%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.3%Bottom 3%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
72/ 100
Top 12% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 3 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 grown 14% since 2020, reaching 1,045,120 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 3 consecutive years.

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

At 9.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
9,355
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.6
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
−12%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
29.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
202020212022202320241045k915k
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
202220232024202512k10k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−18%).

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.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and about 28 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

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, 4.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index87.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100282024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
87
90th percentile index
Days above 100
28
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

67 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hail, cold wave and lightning.

HailHigh
Cold waveModerate
Winter weatherModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, heat wave, ice storm, inland flooding, wildfire, strong wind, earthquake, hurricane, landslide, drought.

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.

Denton County records 2.7 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 9.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.8 per 100,000 residents in Denton County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
7.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
11.2
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 Denton 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 Denton County rather than Denton 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Perot Fld/Fort Worth AllianceAFW19 mi11,125 ft
Dallas-Fort Worth IntlDFW22 mi13,401 ft
Dallas Love FldDAL29 mi8,800 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
75
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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
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.