New Braunfels, Texas

Area Profile

104,643 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for New Braunfels, in Guadalupe County.

72out of 100
Area Score
Top 14% of 2,943 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sources
OpportunityTop 30% of 3,899 cities measured66
SchoolsTop 21% of 2,668 cities measured74
GrowthTop 15% of 2,973 cities measured71
Housing affordability2,291st of 4,147 cities measured78
ClimateTop 45% of 4,223 cities measured71
Physical resilienceTop 36% of 4,182 cities measured70
Access2,713th of 4,226 cities measured88
Economic stabilityTop 36% of 4,226 cities measured67
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $86,021, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 51% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.2 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 1,295 units authorized over the past twelve months, 17% below the prior year.

These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.

At a glance

Population
104,643
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$86,021
Top 28% nationally
Density
2,324/sq mi
45 sq mi of land
Median age
37.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Guadalupe County
Texas
Metro area
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
Nearest major airport
SAT
24 mi · San Antonio Intl
Median home value
$339,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 55% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.0% over the past year, to 59,459 employed residents.

39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,404$86,021Top 28%of 29,4632024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,244$44,596Top 24%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.4%Bottom 35%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.6 minTop 40%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.6%Top 20%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment59,459Top 47%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.6%Top 4%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.0%Bottom 44%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force62,034Top 47%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation68.0%Top 24%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,140Bottom 19%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,010Bottom 16%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 9%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.72.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% 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
202120222023202488k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $86,021 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 — San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers40,040$27,810
Customer Service Representatives34,730$42,720
Home Health and Personal Care Aides31,420$25,960
General and Operations Managers30,560$99,790
Retail Salespersons27,580$30,960
Stockers and Order Fillers27,440$37,360

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.

51% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.2 students for every full-time teacher across 26 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
26
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
50.5%
Top 22% in Texas
Reading proficiency
51.0%
Top 20% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
CANYON H SCOMAL ISD2,41416.0
NEW BRAUNFELS H SNEW BRAUNFELS ISD1,99017.9
NEW BRAUNFELS MIDDLENEW BRAUNFELS ISD1,30117.148%51%
CANYON MIDDLECOMAL ISD1,25117.457%47%
OAK CREEK ELCOMAL ISD85515.053%55%
LONG CREEK H SNEW BRAUNFELS ISD81314.3
VOSS FARMS ELNEW BRAUNFELS ISD80716.149%51%
CHURCH HILL MIDDLECOMAL ISD78015.972%62%
KLEIN ROAD ELNEW BRAUNFELS ISD77316.141%50%
CLEAR SPRING ELCOMAL ISD73815.752%52%
FREIHEIT ELCOMAL ISD66213.039%44%
GOODWIN FRAZIER ELCOMAL ISD66214.151%51%

39.1% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 6% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 94.3, against 100 for the nation. Housing drives most of that difference.

A new two-bedroom lease runs about $1,622, close to the $1,654 tenants already here pay.

Median rent of $1,654 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home at $339,400 costs 3.9 times the median household income of $86,021, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
94.3

Prices here run about 6% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
23.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Market rent, two bedroom
$1,622
what a new lease costs · FY2026
Median gross rent
$1,654
what tenants now pay · 2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$339,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index94.3Bottom 24%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.95Top 27%of 27,9722024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.3%Bottom 29%of 31,7172024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±71444,517Top 1%of 32,1772024 ACS 5-Year
Market rent, one bedroom$1,341Bottom 46%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, three bedroom$2,082Bottom 46%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, two bedroom$1,622Bottom 46%of 4,067FY2026
Median gross rent ±$52$1,654Top 16%of 23,3292024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,975$339,400Top 24%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.1%Top 24%of 22,8042024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 42%of 31,8722024 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
71/ 100
Top 15% of 2,973 published city profiles
The most recent move in permitting was downward, in a series running from 2020 to 2025. That is the direction of the recent run, not a comparison of the two endpoints.

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 27% since 2020, reaching 116,477 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 879 units authorized in 2025, 64% below the year before.

Population is still rising but the pace is easing: 116,477 residents in 2024, up 4.7% over the year, a smaller gain than the year before.

At 12.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1,295
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
12.4
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
−17%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
23.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024116k92k
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
202020222023202420253k879
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−68%).

Weather & climate

7 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 40°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 31.3 inches.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO, 5.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation31.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low40°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing33°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

70 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, tornado, lightning, heat wave, winter weather, wildfire, cold wave, strong wind, hurricane, ice storm, landslide, 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
223
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,159
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

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

New Braunfels's police department reported 223 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,159.

Guadalupe County records 3.1 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 12.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.4 per 100,000 residents in Guadalupe County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.3
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.

Offenses are reported to the FBI by New Braunfels’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 Guadalupe County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city center and a quiet suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around New Braunfels rather than New Braunfels 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

Some things people look for are not on this page, and each is absent 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 individualized 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 neighborhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest San Antonio Intl at 24 miles.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
San Antonio IntlSAT24 mi8,505 ft
Austin-Bergstrom IntlAUS43 mi12,250 ft
Victoria RgnlVCT93 mi9,111 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
72
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Other cities in San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
San AntonioBexar County1,479,83557vs New Braunfels
SchertzBexar County44,05069vs New Braunfels
Timberwood ParkBexar County35,413vs New Braunfels
CiboloGuadalupe County35,10972vs New Braunfels
Canyon LakeComal County33,883vs New Braunfels
SeguinGuadalupe County33,75464vs New Braunfels
ConverseBexar County29,60762vs New Braunfels
BoerneKendall County20,51869vs New Braunfels
Universal CityBexar County20,18962vs New Braunfels
Live OakBexar County15,98463vs New Braunfels
SelmaBexar County11,50365vs New Braunfels
Leon ValleyBexar County11,44661vs New Braunfels

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
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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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
HousingU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
Fair Market Rents
FY2026Annually, each October for the coming fiscal year

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 New Braunfels

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
78130104,009$83,06471