El Paso County, TX

County Profile

870,779 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for El Paso 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.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 33% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity781st of 1,255 counties measured50
Schools857th of 973 counties measured20
Growth667th of 1,226 counties measured47
Housing affordability678th of 1,255 counties measured91
Climate765th of 1,254 counties measured64
Physical resilienceTop 42% of 1,255 counties measured67
AccessTop 42% of 1,255 counties measured85
Economic stability772nd of 1,255 counties measured54
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.9% and median household income $59,806, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 26% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.7 students for every teacher.

2,032 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 7% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
870,779
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$59,806
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
859/sq mi
1013.5 sq mi of land
Median age
33.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
El Paso County
Texas
Metro area
El Paso, TX
Nearest major airport
DNA
28 mi · Dona Ana County Intl Jetport
Median home value
$180,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.9% is lower than 25% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 400,658 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,141$59,806Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$447$28,486Bottom 18%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$46,918Bottom 11%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate18.7%Top 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.5 minBottom 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.9%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment400,658Top 6%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.2%Top 9%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 41%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force421,283Top 6%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation62.6%Top 30%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.9%Top 25%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.83.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.9% 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
202120222023202460k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $59,806 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 — El Paso, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides14,310$23,200
Fast Food and Counter Workers13,520$23,030
Customer Service Representatives10,680$37,640
Retail Salespersons10,070$27,330
General and Operations Managers7,850$77,770
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers7,850$49,270

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.

26% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
246
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
26.2%
Bottom 10% in Texas
Reading proficiency
35.9%
Bottom 22% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
EASTLAKE H SSOCORRO ISD3,00418.0
PEBBLE HILLS H SSOCORRO ISD2,95218.2
FRANKLIN H SEL PASO ISD2,83519.2
SOCORRO H SSOCORRO ISD2,57917.0
CORONADO H SEL PASO ISD2,57619.1
MONTWOOD H SSOCORRO ISD2,49917.1
EASTWOOD H SYSLETA ISD2,29516.0
EL DORADO H SSOCORRO ISD2,10916.2
AMERICAS H SSOCORRO ISD2,04916.5
BEL AIR H SYSLETA ISD1,86616.2
DEL VALLE H SYSLETA ISD1,79816.8
CHAPIN H SEL PASO ISD1,76618.4

74.4% 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 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 $1,079 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,079
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$180,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.02Top 48%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.2%Bottom 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±169323,571Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$15$1,079Top 24%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,408$180,400Bottom 49%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.7%Top 13%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 16%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
47/ 100
Ranks 667 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 5 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 1% since 2020, reaching 875,784 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 5 consecutive years.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 6% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
2,032
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Bottom 41% nationally
Year over year
−7%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
6.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024876k867k
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
2020202120222023202420253k2k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−38%).

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 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.8 inches, including 2.8 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 67, in the Moderate band, and about 63 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 EL PASO INTL AP, 8.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index112.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation8.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100632024 calendar year
Median air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
67
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
112
90th percentile index
Days above 100
63
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 drought.

HailElevated
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

El Paso 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 10.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 residents in El Paso County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.0
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
12.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
13.7
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 El Paso 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 El Paso County rather than El Paso 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 28 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dona Ana County Intl JetportDNA28 mi9,550 ft
Alamogordo-White Sands RgnlALM76 mi9,207 ft
Deming MuniDMN93 mi8,018 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
58
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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.