79849San Elizario, Texas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 79849.

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
Opportunity5006th of 6,210 published ZIP areas39
Schools4307th of 4,422 published ZIP areas11
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 6,685 published ZIP areas85
Climate4562nd of 6,789 published ZIP areas64
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 6,709 published ZIP areas66
Access5210th of 6,791 published ZIP areas82
Economic stability5891st of 6,742 published ZIP areas34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.9% and the Opportunity signal places 79849 in the bottom 19%.

In the public schools here, 19% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.4 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 25% 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
14,409
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$44,831
Bottom 10% nationally
Density
1,056/sq mi
13.6 sq mi of land
Median age
30.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
San Elizario
Texas
Metro area
El Paso, TX
Nearest major airport
DNA
34 mi · Dona Ana County Intl Jetport
Median home value
$109,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.9% is lower than 31% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 400,658 employed residents.

Median household income of $44,831 is below 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,816$44,831Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,635$16,027Bottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate32.2%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute34.8 minTop 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher5.7%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment400,658Top 14%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.2%Top 5%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 37%June 2026
Labor force421,283Top 14%June 2026
Labor force participation59.1%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$51,870Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$39,510Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 31%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.9%Top 31%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202445k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $44,831 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 — El Paso, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides14,310$23,200
Fast Food and Counter Workers13,520$23,030
Customer Service Representatives10,680$37,640
Retail Salespersons10,070$27,330
General and Operations Managers7,850$77,770
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers7,850$49,270

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 San Elizario, TX, the city containing this ZIP code.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.0%
Bottom 8% in Texas
Reading proficiency
26.7%
Bottom 9% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
SAN ELIZARIO H SSAN ELIZARIO ISD98518.2
JOSEFA L SAMBRANO ELSAN ELIZARIO ISD55422.2
ALFONSO BORREGO SR ELSAN ELIZARIO ISD51018.917%28%
ANN M GARCIA-ENRIQUEZ MIDDLESAN ELIZARIO ISD40815.732%32%
L G ALARCON ELSAN ELIZARIO ISD29717.55%17%
LORENZO LOYA PRISAN ELIZARIO ISD17317.3

90.8% 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 $919 takes 25% 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
24.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$919
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$109,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.45Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.9%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3584,292Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$97$919Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,882$109,800Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.6%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 35%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

5 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 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.8 inches, including 2.8 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 67, in the Moderate band, and about 63 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station EL PASO INTL AP, 18.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index112.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation8.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100632024 calendar year
Median air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
67
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
112
90th percentile index
Days above 100
63
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

66 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailElevated
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, heat wave, inland flooding, strong wind, earthquake, wildfire, ice storm, landslide, hurricane, tornado, avalanche.

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.

El Paso County records 3.4 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 10.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.3 per 100,000 residents in El Paso County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.7
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 El Paso 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 79849 rather than 79849 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 34 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dona Ana County Intl JetportDNA34 mi9,550 ft
Alamogordo-White Sands RgnlALM89 mi9,207 ft
Deming MuniDMN98 mi8,018 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.

79849 vs San Elizario

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

79849
San Elizario
Median household income
$44,831
vs
$49,977
Per capita income
$16,027
vs
$16,764
Population density
1,056/sq mi
vs
1,466/sq mi
Median home value
$109,800
vs
$110,400
Median gross rent
$919
vs
$917
Homeownership rate
74.9%
vs
68.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
5.7%
vs
5.7%
Poverty rate
32.2%
vs
25.9%
Median age
30.2
vs
31.1

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.