Hutchinson County, TX

County Profile

20,184 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Hutchinson 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.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 11% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity975th of 1,255 counties41
SchoolsTop 28% of 973 counties69
Growth1208th of 1,226 counties11
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties100
Climate1012th of 1,254 counties60
Physical resilience1061st of 1,255 counties30
Access950th of 1,255 counties67
Economic stability1007th of 1,255 counties40
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.8% and the Opportunity signal places Hutchinson County in the bottom 22%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 1 units authorized over the past twelve months, 50% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by drought, cold wave and tornado.

At a glance

Population
20,184
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,228
Top 44% nationally
Density
23/sq mi
887.4 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hutchinson County
Texas
Metro area
Borger, TX
Nearest major airport
AMA
47 mi · Rick Husband Amarillo Intl
Median home value
$119,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 28% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 8,656 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,462$67,228Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,782$32,722Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.3%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.8 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.8%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment8,656Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force9,093Bottom 2%June 2026
Labor force participation59.0%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 23%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 28%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.13.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.8% 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
202120222023202467k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,228 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.9%
Top 33% in Texas
Reading proficiency
43.1%
Top 43% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
BORGER H SBORGER ISD6919.6
CROCKETT ELBORGER ISD35717.937%35%
SANFORD-FRITCH ELSANFORD-FRITCH ISD34412.335%41%
BORGER MIDDLEBORGER ISD33716.057%47%
BORGER INTBORGER ISD33512.052%42%
GATEWAY ELBORGER ISD31114.1
WEST TEXAS SECONDARY SCHOOLPLEMONS-STINNETT-PHILLIPS CISD3047.8
PAUL BELTON ELBORGER ISD29416.3
SANFORD-FRITCH H SSANFORD-FRITCH ISD2369.4
WEST TEXAS ELPLEMONS-STINNETT-PHILLIPS CISD20911.646%47%
SANFORD-FRITCH J HSANFORD-FRITCH ISD16511.855%55%

53.3% 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 $932 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 1.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
1.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$932
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$119,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income1.77Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.3%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2310,170Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$98$932Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,764$119,100Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.6%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate31.2%Top 8%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
11/ 100
Ranks 1208 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 fallen 4% since 2020, reaching 19,721 in 2024.

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

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

Units permitted
1
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
−50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202421k20k
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
2020202120222023202420255.01.0
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 95°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 18.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BORGER HUTCHINSON CO AP, 10.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation18.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

30 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
WildfireHigh
HailHigh
Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveModerate
TornadoModerate
Ice stormModerate
Strong windModerate
LightningModerate

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

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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Hutchinson County records 8.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 19.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.0 per 100,000 residents in Hutchinson County.

Homicide
8.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.1
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 Hutchinson 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 Hutchinson County rather than Hutchinson 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
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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 47 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rick Husband Amarillo IntlAMA47 mi13,502 ft
Infinity One Oklahoma SpaceportCSM126 mi13,503 ft
Lubbock Preston Smith IntlLBB152 mi11,500 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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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

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 Hutchinson County, TX