Midland County, TX

County Profile

174,801 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Midland 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.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 22% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 8% of 1,255 counties measured81
Schools735th of 973 counties measured30
GrowthTop 18% of 1,226 counties measured67
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 1,255 counties measured95
Climate826th of 1,254 counties measured63
Physical resilienceTop 45% of 1,255 counties measured65
AccessTop 14% of 1,255 counties measured95
Economic stabilityTop 20% of 1,255 counties measured82
The quick read

Midland County ranks in the top 8% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $92,874.

Residential permitting has slowed: 913 units authorized over the past twelve months, 42% below the prior year.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
174,801
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$92,874
Top 8% nationally
Density
194/sq mi
900.4 sq mi of land
Median age
32.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Midland County
Texas
Metro area
Midland, TX
Nearest major airport
MAF
15 mi · Midland Intl Air and Space Port
Median home value
$312,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 75% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment held steady over the past year, at 100,397 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 78% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 92% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,211$92,874Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,286$49,746Top 7%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.3%Bottom 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.2 minBottom 33%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.0%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment100,397Top 25%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.7%Top 4%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.0%Top 33%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force104,143Top 26%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation70.0%Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 27%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 25%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.12.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.6% 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
202120222023202494k88k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $92,874 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 — Midland, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers4,830$132,420
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers4,540$58,200
Roustabouts, Oil and Gas3,940$47,180
Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas3,460$49,470
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,240$28,650
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers2,700$79,940

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.

39% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
49
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
39.3%
Bottom 42% in Texas
Reading proficiency
37.3%
Bottom 27% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
LEGACY H SMIDLAND ISD2,73520.3
MIDLAND H SMIDLAND ISD2,71819.1
IDEA TRAVIS ACADEMY · charterMIDLAND ISD1,29823%17%
GODDARD J HMIDLAND ISD1,21017.832%31%
ABELL J HMIDLAND ISD1,12917.943%46%
GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS ELMIDLAND ISD95026.444%49%
BARBARA FASKEN ELMIDLAND ISD90920.247%44%
LEGACY FRESHMAN H SMIDLAND ISD89014.4
TEXAS LEADERSHIP OF MIDLAND · charterTEXAS LEADERSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS88817.125%25%
GREENWOOD H SGREENWOOD ISD87914.7
GREATHOUSE ELMIDLAND ISD87222.446%41%
MIDLAND FRESHMAN H SMIDLAND ISD84519.7

56.7% 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 $1,407 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,407
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$312,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.37Top 35%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.6%Bottom 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6672,723Top 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,407Top 10%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,778$312,700Top 18%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.2%Top 36%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.0%Bottom 14%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
67/ 100
Top 18% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 8% since 2020, reaching 183,587 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 5.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
913
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.2
Top 28% nationally
Year over year
−42%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024184k169k
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
2020202120222023202420252k593
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (+2%).

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 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 13.5 inches, including 4.3 inches of snow.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MIDLAND ODESSA, 14.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation13.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall4.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing39°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

65 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailHigh
WildfireElevated
DroughtElevated
Heat waveModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, tornado, inland flooding, lightning, cold wave, hurricane, earthquake, ice storm, 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.

Midland County records 2.4 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 15.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.7 per 100,000 residents in Midland County.

Homicide
2.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
10.7
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.6
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 Midland 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 Midland County rather than Midland 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Midland Intl Air and Space PortMAF15 mi9,501 ft
Big Spring/Mc Mahon-WrinkleBPG39 mi8,803 ft
Lea County RgnlHOB93 mi8,000 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
70
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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 Midland County, TX