Rio Grande City, Texas

Area Profile

15,396 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Rio Grande City, in Starr County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3482nd of 3,904 published cities35
Schools2489th of 2,668 published cities16
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 4,223 published cities94
Climate2493rd of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilienceTop 50% of 4,182 published cities58
Access4017th of 4,226 published cities54
Economic stability4017th of 4,226 published cities28
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 10.2% and the Opportunity signal places Rio Grande City in the bottom 11%.

In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.3 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.5 times that income.

At a glance

Population
15,396
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$44,577
Bottom 15% nationally
Density
1,356/sq mi
11.4 sq mi of land
Median age
29.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Starr County
Texas
Metro area
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX
Nearest major airport
HRL
73 mi · Valley Intl
Median home value
$113,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 10.2% is lower than 1% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.7% over the past year, to 22,991 employed residents.

Median household income of $44,577 is below 85% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,194$44,577Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,347$19,539Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate30.8%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.0 minBottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.8%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,991Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 45%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.7%Top 17%June 2026
Labor force25,591Bottom 32%June 2026
Labor force participation57.0%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 37%June 2026
Unemployment rate10.2%Top 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202445k41k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $44,577 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.

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

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 24% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.2%
Bottom 5% in Texas
Reading proficiency
23.5%
Bottom 1% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
RIO GRANDE CITY H SRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD1,67013.7
VETERANS MIDDLERIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD73413.132%37%
IDEA RIO GRANDE CITY ACADEMY · charterIDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS71721.720%39%
GRULLA H SRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD71613.3
GENERAL RICARDO SANCHEZ ELRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD71217.812%16%
IDEA RIO GRANDE CITY COLLEGE PREPARATORY · charterIDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS69515.837%42%
RINGGOLD MIDDLERIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD63911.017%22%
ROQUE GUERRA JR ELRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD60415.59%14%
ALTO BONITO ELRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD58817.815%18%
RAMIRO BARRERA MIDDLEROMA ISD56410.635%35%
DR MARIO E RAMIREZ ELRIO GRANDE CITY GRULLA ISD49314.514%14%
DELIA GONZALEZ GARCIA ELROMA ISD48713.510%10%

94.9% 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 $767 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.5 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
20.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$767
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$113,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.54Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.4%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3305,168Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$63$767Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,089$113,200Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.6%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.4%Top 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 →

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 15,526 in 2024.

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

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k15k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 99°F and January a low of 45°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 22.5 inches.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RIO GRANDE CITY, 0.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation22.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low45°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high99°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing29°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 inland flooding, hurricane and wildfire.

WildfireModerate
HurricaneModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LandslideModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, drought, hail, ice storm, winter weather, tornado, earthquake, strong wind.

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.

Starr County records 5.7 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 8.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 4.7 per 100,000 residents in Starr County.

Homicide
5.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.7
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 Starr 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 Rio Grande City rather than Rio Grande City 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 73 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Valley IntlHRL73 mi9,400 ft
Laredo IntlLRD90 mi8,743 ft
Victoria RgnlVCT207 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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Other cities in Rio Grande City-Roma, TX

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RomaStarr County11,545vs Rio Grande City

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
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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 Rio Grande City

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7858244,741$42,626