Galena Park, Texas

Area Profile

10,487 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Galena Park, in Harris County.

46out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 7% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3357th of 3,904 published cities38
Schools1668th of 2,668 published cities42
Growth2829th of 2,973 published cities16
Housing affordability2312th of 4,223 published cities78
ClimateTop 27% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilience3518th of 4,182 published cities21
AccessTop 30% of 4,226 published cities96
Economic stability3505th of 4,226 published cities40
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Galena Park in the bottom 14%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 0 units authorized over the past twelve months, 100% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, hurricane and drought.

At a glance

Population
10,487
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$51,220
Bottom 24% nationally
Density
2,183/sq mi
4.8 sq mi of land
Median age
33.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Harris County
Texas
Metro area
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Nearest major airport
EFD
11 mi · Ellington
Median home value
$117,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 2,412,483 employed residents.

Median household income of $51,220 is below 76% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$11,383$51,220Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,008$20,088Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate20.9%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.4 minTop 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher8.2%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment2,412,483Top 2%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.5%Top 12%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 44%June 2026
Labor force2,545,929Top 2%June 2026
Labor force participation59.6%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,610Bottom 48%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,410Bottom 36%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202454k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $51,220 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 — Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers105,810$27,570
General and Operations Managers97,320$119,600
Retail Salespersons78,960$31,340
Stockers and Order Fillers72,970$36,890
Registered Nurses65,910$99,830
Customer Service Representatives65,510$40,380

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Harris County, TX, which contains this city.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 35% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.9%
Bottom 44% in Texas
Reading proficiency
35.0%
Bottom 28% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
GALENA PARK H SGALENA PARK ISD1,81515.4
GALENA PARK MIDDLEGALENA PARK ISD89614.738%36%
GALENA PARK ELGALENA PARK ISD58814.332%35%
MACARTHUR ELGALENA PARK ISD55613.940%33%

87.0% 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 $1,184 takes 28% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.3 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
27.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,184
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$117,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.30Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.7%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2603,367Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$197$1,184Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,483$117,700Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.7%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.8%Bottom 41%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
16/ 100
Ranks 2829 of 2,973 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 2% since 2020, reaching 10,438 in 2024.

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

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
−100%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202411k10k
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
202020222023202420256.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2020 (0%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 46°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 55.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 61, in the Moderate band, and about 47 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 HOUSTON HOBBY AP, 7.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index108.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation55.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low46°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100472024 calendar year
Median air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing30°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
61
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
108
90th percentile index
Days above 100
47
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

21 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and drought.

HurricaneElevated
Inland floodingElevated
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Harris County records 7.6 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 14.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.1 per 100,000 residents in Harris County.

Homicide
7.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.7
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 Harris 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 Galena Park rather than Galena Park 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 11 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
EllingtonEFD11 mi9,001 ft
George Bush Intcntl/HoustonIAH18 mi12,001 ft
Sugar Land RgnlSGR27 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
46
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Other cities in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
HoustonHarris County2,328,25354vs Galena Park
PasadenaHarris County149,43349vs Galena Park
PearlandBrazoria County127,51465vs Galena Park
The WoodlandsMontgomery County121,002vs Galena Park
League CityGalveston County116,21575vs Galena Park
Sugar LandFort Bend County110,01671vs Galena Park
ConroeMontgomery County102,36067vs Galena Park
AtascocitaHarris County99,354vs Galena Park
BaytownHarris County85,20550vs Galena Park
Missouri CityFort Bend County76,55860vs Galena Park
SpringHarris County68,580vs Galena Park
Texas CityGalveston County55,36465vs Galena Park

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Galena Park

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
775479,217$50,99146