22902Charlottesville, Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 22902.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 37% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 6% of 6,210 published ZIP areas81
Schools3067th of 4,422 published ZIP areas36
Growth4497th of 5,428 published ZIP areas30
Housing affordability4002nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas74
ClimateTop 27% of 6,789 published ZIP areas76
Physical resilienceTop 34% of 6,709 published ZIP areas72
Access6443rd of 6,791 published ZIP areas55
Economic stabilityTop 26% of 6,742 published ZIP areas72
The quick read

22902 ranks in the top 6% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $93,463.

In the public schools here, 39% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.6 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 115 units authorized over the past twelve months, 87% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
23,486
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$93,463
Top 24% nationally
Density
365/sq mi
64.3 sq mi of land
Median age
39.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Charlottesville
Virginia
Metro area
Charlottesville, VA
Nearest major airport
RIC
71 mi · Richmond Intl
Median home value
$436,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 89% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 24,003 employed residents.

59% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 93% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,215$93,463Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,841$60,883Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.2%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.2 minBottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher59.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,003Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 48%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 14%June 2026
Labor force24,838Bottom 24%June 2026
Labor force participation72.3%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$74,000Top 26%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,180Top 29%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202493k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $93,463 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 — Charlottesville, VA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses3,040$99,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,800$30,150
Retail Salespersons2,540$34,210
General and Operations Managers2,530$107,200
Waiters and Waitresses2,140$44,030
Cashiers2,110$30,930

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 Charlottesville, VA, the city containing this ZIP code.

39% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
39.3%
Bottom 31% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
50.9%
Bottom 22% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Monticello HighAlbemarle County Public Schools1,18414.3
Mountain View ElementaryAlbemarle County Public Schools76913.545%57%
Summit ElementaryCharlottesville City Public Schools28511.425%35%
Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention HomeDepartment of Education State-Operated Educ Prgms0
Monticello Governor's Health Sciences AcademyAlbemarle County Public Schools0

52.0% 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 Virginia’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 $1,659 takes 21% 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
21.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,659
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$436,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.67Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.2%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±53912,023Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,659Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,857$436,200Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.3%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.1%Bottom 28%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
30/ 100
Ranks 4497 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.

84% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
115
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.5
Bottom 46% nationally
Year over year
−87%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
84.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings

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

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.2 inches.

20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHARLOTTESVILLE 2 SSE, 6.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation48.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing40°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

72 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneElevated
LandslideModerate
LightningModerate
DroughtModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, inland flooding, heat wave, wildfire, ice storm, tornado, hail, 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.

Charlottesville city records 2.9 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 9.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.2 per 100,000 residents in Charlottesville city.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.2
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 Charlottesville city 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 22902 rather than 22902 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 71 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Richmond IntlRIC71 mi9,003 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD92 mi11,500 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF124 mi8,003 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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Area Score
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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
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

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.

22902 vs Charlottesville

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

22902
Charlottesville
Median household income
$93,463
vs
$74,824
Per capita income
$60,883
vs
$51,540
Population density
365/sq mi
vs
4,435/sq mi
Median home value
$436,200
vs
$486,700
Median gross rent
$1,659
vs
$1,540
Homeownership rate
53.2%
vs
44.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
59.4%
vs
62.5%
Poverty rate
9.2%
vs
19.6%
Median age
39.7
vs
33.1

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.