Webster, Texas

Area Profile

12,366 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Webster, in Harris County.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2428th of 3,904 cities measured50
SchoolsTop 49% of 2,668 cities measured52
Growth2519th of 2,973 cities measured28
Housing affordability3319th of 4,223 cities measured61
ClimateTop 19% of 4,223 cities measured79
Physical resilience3511th of 4,182 cities measured22
AccessTop 29% of 4,226 cities measured97
Economic stability2327th of 4,226 cities measured58
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 3 units authorized over the past twelve months, 79% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, hurricane and drought.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
12,366
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,264
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
1,948/sq mi
6.3 sq mi of land
Median age
33.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Harris County
Texas
Metro area
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Nearest major airport
EFD
6 mi · Ellington
Median home value
$281,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 2,412,483 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 79% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$9,590$61,264Bottom 41%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,153$41,153Top 30%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.7%Top 40%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.0 minTop 30%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher37.9%Top 21%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment2,412,483Top 2%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.5%Top 12%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 44%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force2,545,929Top 2%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation70.7%Top 16%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,610Bottom 48%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,410Bottom 36%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 21%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,264 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 — Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers105,810$27,570
General and Operations Managers97,320$119,600
Retail Salespersons78,960$31,340
Stockers and Order Fillers72,970$36,890
Registered Nurses65,910$99,830
Customer Service Representatives65,510$40,380

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

32% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.8%
Bottom 30% in Texas
Reading proficiency
41.1%
Top 47% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
MARGARET S MCWHIRTER ELCLEAR CREEK ISD81015.927%37%
P H GREENE ELCLEAR CREEK ISD54514.339%47%
CLEAR VIEW H SCLEAR CREEK ISD1908.6
CLEAR PATH ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLCLEAR CREEK ISD1182.4

67.8% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run at about the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,393 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
27.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,393
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$281,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index99.7Bottom 43%of 3,6582023
Home price to income4.59Top 19%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate22.4%Bottom 2%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5076,641Top 9%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$57$1,393Top 24%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$70,186$281,400Top 31%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.3%Top 11%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.8%Top 50%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
28/ 100
Ranks 2519 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 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 1% since 2020, reaching 12,548 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
3
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.2
Bottom 14% nationally
Year over year
−79%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k12k
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
20202022202320242025793.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+100%).

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 46°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 53.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 61, in the Moderate band, and about 47 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HOUSTON CLOVER FLD, 7.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index108.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation53.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low46°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100472024 calendar year
Median air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing30°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
61
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
108
90th percentile index
Days above 100
47
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

22 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
Inland floodingElevated
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, cold wave, lightning, heat wave, ice storm, strong wind, earthquake, hail, winter weather, wildfire, coastal flooding.

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
485
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
4,183
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.

Webster's police department reported 485 violent offences per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 4,183.

Harris County records 7.6 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 14.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.1 per 100,000 residents in Harris County.

Homicide
7.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.7
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 Webster’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 Harris 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 Webster rather than Webster 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
EllingtonEFD6 mi9,001 ft
Sugar Land RgnlSGR33 mi8,000 ft
George Bush Intcntl/HoustonIAH34 mi12,001 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.

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
50
Your Score

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

Other cities in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
HoustonHarris County2,328,25354vs Webster
PasadenaHarris County149,43349vs Webster
PearlandBrazoria County127,51465vs Webster
The WoodlandsMontgomery County121,002vs Webster
League CityGalveston County116,21575vs Webster
Sugar LandFort Bend County110,01671vs Webster
ConroeMontgomery County102,36067vs Webster
AtascocitaHarris County99,354vs Webster
BaytownHarris County85,20550vs Webster
Missouri CityFort Bend County76,55860vs Webster
SpringHarris County68,580vs Webster
Texas CityGalveston County55,36465vs Webster

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
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.

ZIP codes in Webster

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7759826,110$60,97751