Nolan County, TX

County Profile

14,454 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Nolan 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.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 15% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1058th of 1,255 counties measured36
Schools645th of 973 counties measured38
Growth975th of 1,226 counties measured34
Housing affordability663rd of 1,255 counties measured92
Climate725th of 1,254 counties measured65
Physical resilience683rd of 1,255 counties measured58
Access1054th of 1,255 counties measured60
Economic stability1119th of 1,255 counties measured32
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.6% and the Opportunity signal places Nolan County in the bottom 16%.

In the public schools here, 37% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.2 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 12 units authorized over the past twelve months, 20% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
14,454
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$50,747
Bottom 15% nationally
Density
16/sq mi
912.0 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Nolan County
Texas
Metro area
Sweetwater, TX
Nearest major airport
BPG
65 mi · Big Spring/Mc Mahon-Wrinkle
Median home value
$96,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 34% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 5,905 employed residents.

Median household income of $50,747 is below 85% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,546$50,747Bottom 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,375$32,182Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.5%Top 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.9 minBottom 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.0%Bottom 18%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment5,905Bottom 1%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 32%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 48%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force6,191Bottom 1%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation59.1%Top 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 34%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.93.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.6% 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
202120222023202451k45k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $50,747 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.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.1%
Bottom 34% in Texas
Reading proficiency
33.3%
Bottom 13% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
SWEETWATER H SSWEETWATER ISD55312.6
SWEETWATER MIDDLESWEETWATER ISD37213.327%27%
SWEETWATER INTSWEETWATER ISD35313.644%35%
ROSCOE COLLEGIATE H S · charterROSCOE COLLEGIATE ISD30710.235%35%
HIGHLAND SCHOOLHIGHLAND ISD2079.480%60%
EAST RIDGE ELSWEETWATER ISD20512.127%22%
BLACKWELL SCHOOLBLACKWELL CISD1868.9
ROSCOE EL · charterROSCOE COLLEGIATE ISD17910.511%24%
SOUTHEAST EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERSWEETWATER ISD16627.7
SOUTHEAST ELSWEETWATER ISD15713.1
ROSCOE COLLEGIATE MONTESSORI EARLY CHILDHOOD · charterROSCOE COLLEGIATE ISD8421.0

60.4% 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 $913 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 1.9 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
1.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$913
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$96,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income1.90Bottom 8%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.1%Bottom 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±407,104Bottom 32%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$80$913Top 42%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,521$96,300Bottom 5%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.6%Top 13%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.1%Top 37%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
34/ 100
Ranks 975 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 4% since 2020, reaching 14,182 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
12
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 12% nationally
Year over year
−20%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k14k
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
2022202320242025151.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+1300%).

Weather & climate

6 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 29°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 23.9 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BRONTE 11 NNE, 21.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation23.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low29°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

58 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
WildfireElevated
HailElevated
Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Nolan County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.4 per 100,000 residents in Nolan County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.7
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 Nolan 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 Nolan County rather than Nolan 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 65 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Big Spring/Mc Mahon-WrinkleBPG65 mi8,803 ft
San Angelo Rgnl/Mathis FldSJT66 mi8,054 ft
Midland Intl Air and Space PortMAF107 mi9,501 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 Nolan County, TX