Huntsville, Texas

Area Profile

47,864 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Huntsville, in Walker County.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3171st of 3,904 cities measured41
Schools2496th of 2,668 cities measured16
GrowthTop 31% of 2,973 cities measured61
Housing affordability3413th of 4,223 cities measured59
Climate2184th of 4,223 cities measured70
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 4,182 cities measured60
Access3683rd of 4,226 cities measured71
Economic stability4092nd of 4,226 cities measured25
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Huntsville in the bottom 19%.

In the public schools here, 28% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 19.1 students for every teacher.

Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 26% of median household income and the median home is 5.0 times it — each just short of the thresholds that would count as strained, but both toward the costly end.

At a glance

Population
47,864
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$47,529
Bottom 19% nationally
Density
1,146/sq mi
41.8 sq mi of land
Median age
31.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Walker County
Texas
Metro area
Huntsville, TX
Nearest major airport
IAH
51 mi · George Bush Intcntl/Houston
Median home value
$236,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 22% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 17,604 employed residents.

Median household income of $47,529 is below 81% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,644$47,529Bottom 19%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,882$22,918Bottom 15%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate23.9%Top 17%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 40%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.3%Top 41%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,604Bottom 20%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.4%Top 19%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 47%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force18,556Bottom 21%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation49.6%Bottom 21%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 25%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 22%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.33.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.1% 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
202120222023202448k36k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $47,529 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 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 19.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.4%
Bottom 24% in Texas
Reading proficiency
25.0%
Bottom 4% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HUNTSVILLE H SHUNTSVILLE ISD1,88216.1
MANCE PARK MIDDLEHUNTSVILLE ISD1,29818.837%25%
SCOTT JOHNSON ELHUNTSVILLE ISD87920.927%27%
SAMUEL HOUSTON ELHUNTSVILLE ISD76027.120%18%
HUNTSVILLE ELHUNTSVILLE ISD67021.627%27%
STEWART ELHUNTSVILLE ISD54722.822%17%
IGNITE COMMUNITY SCHOOL - HUNTSVILLE · charterTEXAS COLLEGE PREPARATORY ACADEMIES38015.232%42%
PREMIER H S OF HUNTSVILLE · charterPREMIER HIGH SCHOOLS6722.3

73.7% 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 $1,035 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
26.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,035
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$236,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.98Top 16%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate41.1%Bottom 5%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±48818,184Top 3%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$67$1,035Top 45%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,333$236,600Top 38%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.1%Top 14%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.2%Top 42%of 32,0012024 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
61/ 100
Top 31% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 49,500 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

At 2.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
138
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.9
Top 44% nationally
Year over year
+14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
26.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202450k46k
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
20202022202320242025494109
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−21%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.6 inches.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HUNTSVILLE MUNI AP, 3.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing34°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

60 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtElevated
HurricaneElevated
Cold waveModerate
WildfireModerate
Winter weatherModerate
LandslideModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, lightning, heat wave, ice storm, inland flooding, hail, earthquake.

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.

Violent crime
517
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,385
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Huntsville's police department reported 517 violent offences per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,385.

Walker County records 5.6 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 14.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 34.5 per 100,000 residents in Walker County.

Homicide
5.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
34.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.7
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Huntsville’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Walker 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 Huntsville rather than Huntsville 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.

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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 51 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
George Bush Intcntl/HoustonIAH51 mi12,001 ft
Sugar Land RgnlSGR75 mi8,000 ft
EllingtonEFD79 mi9,001 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
51
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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.

ZIP codes in Huntsville

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7732038,152$55,66353
7734037,517$48,53851