76597 — Gatesville, Texas
Area Profile
Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 76597.
Missing required signal: opportunity. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.
Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 89 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 493% on the prior year.
A typical July reaches 97°F and a typical January falls to 36°F, on thirty-year normals.
Natural-hazard exposure sits in the middle range of published ZIP profiles, with cold wave, hail and wildfire the hazards that carry it.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 14% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.
Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 25,664 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per capita income ±$1,562 | $3,006 | Bottom 1%of 32,822 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 4.5% | Bottom 6%of 33,193 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 25,664 | Bottom 26%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 2.1% | Top 24%of 6,542 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -0.6% | Top 46%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 27,171 | Bottom 27%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 0.0% | Bottom 1%of 33,252 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wage | $62,390 | Bottom 28%of 6,072 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wage | $46,660 | Bottom 16%of 6,072 | 2025 OEWS |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.7% | Top 21%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 5.5% | Top 14%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 7,120 | $26,530 |
| Registered Nurses | 5,340 | $93,440 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 3,970 | $36,560 |
| Retail Salespersons | 3,870 | $29,970 |
| General and Operations Managers | 3,650 | $87,920 |
| Cashiers | 3,250 | $28,610 |
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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Gatesville, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated →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.
At 5.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.
The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Gatesville, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.
Weather & climate
6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 97°F and January a low of 36°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 36.4 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 36.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 0.7" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 36°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 97°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 38°F | 1991-2020 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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave, hail and wildfire.
Low or minimal exposure: tornado, lightning, winter weather, heat wave, inland flooding, hurricane, ice storm, drought, strong wind, landslide, earthquake.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Safety
How it’s measured →These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Coryell County records 3.9 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 15.3 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 Coryell County.
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 Coryell 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 76597 rather than 76597 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
- Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Taxes
- Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 39 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tstc Waco | CNW | 39 mi | 8,600 ft |
| Austin-Bergstrom Intl | AUS | 89 mi | 12,250 ft |
| Dallas-Fort Worth Intl | DFW | 105 mi | 13,401 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 for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Housing | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 | Annually, each December |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS | Annual (spring release) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
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.
76597 vs Gatesville
How this ZIP area compares with Gatesville as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.
Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.