78582Rio Grande City, Texas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 78582.

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
Opportunity5712th of 6,210 published ZIP areas29
Schools4068th of 4,422 published ZIP areas18
Housing affordabilityTop 25% of 6,685 published ZIP areas93
Climate3868th of 6,789 published ZIP areas68
Physical resilienceTop 50% of 6,709 published ZIP areas58
Access6431st of 6,791 published ZIP areas56
Economic stability6305th of 6,742 published ZIP areas27
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 10.2% and the Opportunity signal places 78582 in the bottom 8%.

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 2.4 times that income.

At a glance

Population
44,741
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$42,626
Bottom 8% nationally
Density
79/sq mi
565.3 sq mi of land
Median age
29.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Rio Grande City
Texas
Metro area
Rio Grande City-Roma, TX
Nearest major airport
HRL
70 mi · Valley Intl
Median home value
$102,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 10.2% is lower than 1% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

Median household income of $42,626 is below 92% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,648$42,626Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,311$19,188Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate31.3%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.1 minBottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher13.2%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,991Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 48%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.7%Top 16%June 2026
Labor force25,591Bottom 25%June 2026
Labor force participation58.7%Bottom 43%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
202120222023202443k38k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $42,626 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Rio Grande City, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 7% in Texas
Reading proficiency
23.5%
Bottom 4% 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 $747 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.4 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$747
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$102,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.41Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.3%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±44714,896Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$51$747Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,478$102,800Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.1%Top 40%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 →

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, 11.5 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. 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.

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, near the middle of 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 78582 rather than 78582 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 70 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Valley IntlHRL70 mi9,400 ft
Laredo IntlLRD83 mi8,743 ft
Victoria RgnlVCT195 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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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.

78582 vs Rio Grande City

How this ZIP area compares with Rio Grande City as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

78582
Rio Grande City
Median household income
$42,626
vs
$44,577
Per capita income
$19,188
vs
$19,539
Population density
79/sq mi
vs
1,356/sq mi
Median home value
$102,800
vs
$113,200
Median gross rent
$747
vs
$767
Homeownership rate
72.3%
vs
69.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
13.2%
vs
18.8%
Poverty rate
31.3%
vs
30.8%
Median age
29.7
vs
29.9

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.