84651Payson, Utah

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 84651.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 48% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 23% of 6,210 published ZIP areas68
Schools4060th of 4,422 published ZIP areas18
GrowthTop 18% of 5,428 published ZIP areas68
Housing affordability3513th of 6,685 published ZIP areas78
Climate5662nd of 6,789 published ZIP areas60
Physical resilience3919th of 6,709 published ZIP areas49
AccessTop 49% of 6,791 published ZIP areas93
Economic stabilityTop 12% of 6,742 published ZIP areas80
The quick read

84651 ranks in the top 23% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.8% and median household income of $96,999.

In the public schools here, 33% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 22.5 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
29,503
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$96,999
Top 21% nationally
Density
233/sq mi
126.7 sq mi of land
Median age
30.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Payson
Utah
Metro area
Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT
Nearest major airport
PVU
18 mi · Provo Muni
Median home value
$459,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 74% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 347,314 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,900$96,999Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,787$32,093Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.7%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.3 minBottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.3%Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment347,314Top 15%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.1%Top 36%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 46%June 2026
Labor force361,169Top 16%June 2026
Labor force participation68.6%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,230Bottom 33%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,010Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202497k83k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $96,999 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 — Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,060$28,710
Retail Salespersons8,710$33,120
General and Operations Managers7,910$95,790
Software Developers7,870$131,210
Customer Service Representatives7,780$39,560
Office Clerks, General6,540$43,080

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 Payson, UT, the city containing this ZIP code.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 32% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 22.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
32.9%
Bottom 25% in Utah
Reading proficiency
31.8%
Bottom 16% in Utah
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Payson HighNebo District1,64823.9
Payson Jr HighNebo District1,14323.821%27%
Mt. Nebo MiddleNebo District1,03421.1
Spring Lake SchoolNebo District53123.145%42%
Barnett SchoolNebo District50821.231%24%
Taylor SchoolNebo District42420.245%34%
Wilson SchoolNebo District40522.539%32%
Park View SchoolNebo District35620.935%40%

33.6% 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 Utah’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 $1,525 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,525
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$459,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.74Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate85.0%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4008,928Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$152$1,525Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,299$459,300Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.9%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.0%Bottom 17%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 →
Development Momentum
68/ 100
Top 18% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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

At 8.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
184
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.0
Top 17% nationally
Year over year
−4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Payson, UT, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 20°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 18.4 inches, including 55.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and about 9 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SANTAQUIN CHLORINATOR, 4.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index77.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation18.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall55.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10092024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
77
90th percentile index
Days above 100
9
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

49 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, wildfire and heat wave.

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, inland flooding, strong wind, volcanic activity, drought, tornado, ice storm, cold wave, hail.

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.

Utah County records 1.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.3 per 100,000 residents in Utah County.

Homicide
1.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.0
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 Utah 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 84651 rather than 84651 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Provo MuniPVU18 mi8,603 ft
Carbon County Rgnl/Buck Davis FldPUC55 mi8,316 ft
Salt Lake City IntlSLC59 mi12,002 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
61
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

84651 vs Payson

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

84651
Payson
Median household income
$96,999
vs
$89,905
Per capita income
$32,093
vs
$30,564
Population density
233/sq mi
vs
1,751/sq mi
Median home value
$459,300
vs
$429,600
Median gross rent
$1,525
vs
$1,549
Homeownership rate
85.0%
vs
82.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
29.3%
vs
27.9%
Poverty rate
5.7%
vs
7.3%
Median age
30.9
vs
29.5

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.