Kleberg County, TX

County Profile

30,579 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Kleberg 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.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 8% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity836th of 1,255 counties47
Schools805th of 973 counties24
Growth1183rd of 1,226 counties18
Housing affordabilityTop 46% of 1,255 counties94
ClimateTop 20% of 1,254 counties76
Physical resilience919th of 1,255 counties41
Access1176th of 1,255 counties44
Economic stability1078th of 1,255 counties35
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.5% and median household income $61,292, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 10 units authorized over the past twelve months, 57% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, hail and lightning.

At a glance

Population
30,579
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,292
Bottom 39% nationally
Density
35/sq mi
881.3 sq mi of land
Median age
29.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Kleberg County
Texas
Metro area
Kingsville, TX
Nearest major airport
HRL
84 mi · Valley Intl
Median home value
$161,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 12% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.2% over the past year, to 13,335 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,466$61,292Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,609$26,395Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate28.1%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.7 minBottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.2%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,335Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.6%Top 11%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.2%Top 28%June 2026
Labor force14,104Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force participation61.1%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.0%Top 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.5%Top 12%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.03.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.5% 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
202120222023202461k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,292 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.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 35% 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
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.4%
Bottom 14% in Texas
Reading proficiency
35.2%
Bottom 19% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
H M KING H SKINGSVILLE ISD91815.3
HARVEY ELKINGSVILLE ISD48615.720%20%
GILLETT MIDDLEKINGSVILLE ISD45513.417%22%
RICARDO ELRICARDO ISD44915.527%45%
SANTA GERTRUDIS SCHOOLSANTA GERTRUDIS ISD43315.558%68%
SANTA GERTRUDIS ACADEMY H SSANTA GERTRUDIS ISD39315.7
PEREZ ELKINGSVILLE ISD36414.025%29%
HARREL ELKINGSVILLE ISD31115.618%15%
JUBILEE KINGSVILLE · charterJUBILEE ACADEMIES30215.17%10%
RICARDO MIDDLERICARDO ISD21015.055%61%
KAUFER H SRIVIERA ISD18110.635%55%
NANNY ELRIVIERA ISD14311.037%52%

69.8% 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 $1,043 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.6 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
20.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,043
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$161,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.63Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate52.5%Bottom 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±13614,012Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$68$1,043Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,189$161,300Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.4%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.4%Top 45%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
18/ 100
Ranks 1183 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 30,442 in 2024.

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

At 0.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
10
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.3
Bottom 4% nationally
Year over year
−57%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k30k
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
20222023202420252718
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−33%).

Weather & climate

8 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 47°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 27.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and about 4 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station KINGSVILLE NAAS, 10.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation27.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low47°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing29°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
71
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

41 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
HailModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, wildfire, drought, ice storm, inland flooding, tornado, coastal flooding, winter weather, strong wind, earthquake, 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.

Kleberg County records 3.8 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 10.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.9 per 100,000 residents in Kleberg County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.3
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 Kleberg 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 Kleberg County rather than Kleberg 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 84 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Valley IntlHRL84 mi9,400 ft
Victoria RgnlVCT108 mi9,111 ft
Laredo IntlLRD111 mi8,743 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
49
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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
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.

Cities in Kleberg County, TX