22903Charlottesville, Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 22903.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 47% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 13% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured75
SchoolsTop 33% of 4,422 ZIP areas measured65
Growth4497th of 5,428 ZIP areas measured30
Housing affordability6251st of 6,685 ZIP areas measured42
ClimateTop 27% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured76
Physical resilienceTop 33% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured72
Access6530th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured51
Economic stability5295th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured42
The quick read

22903 ranks in the top 13% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $69,340.

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

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 7.6 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 27% of it.

At a glance

Population
40,372
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$69,340
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
585/sq mi
69.0 sq mi of land
Median age
29.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Charlottesville
Virginia
Metro area
Charlottesville, VA
Nearest major airport
RIC
78 mi · Richmond Intl
Median home value
$526,200
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.

66% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 95% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,230$69,340Bottom 46%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,329$51,513Top 18%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.1%Top 16%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.1 minBottom 13%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher66.4%Top 5%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,003Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 48%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 14%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force24,838Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation62.7%Top 42%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$74,000Top 26%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,180Top 29%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 40%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 11%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202469k62k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $69,340 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.

56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 66% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
55.7%
Top 42% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
65.9%
Top 46% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Walker Upper ElementaryCharlottesville City Public Schools5709.032%57%
Buford MiddleCharlottesville City Public Schools5638.247%62%
Jackson P. Burley MiddleAlbemarle County Public Schools53412.467%75%
Jackson-Via ElementaryCharlottesville City Public Schools37012.345%55%
Leslie H. Walton MiddleAlbemarle County Public Schools33910.370%
Johnson ElementaryCharlottesville City Public Schools32711.755%65%
Trailblazer ElementaryCharlottesville City Public Schools32011.965%69%
Virginia L. Murray ElementaryAlbemarle County Public Schools27313.790%90%
Community Lab School · charterAlbemarle County Public Schools1779.8
Lugo-McGinness AcademyCharlottesville City Public Schools0
Charlottesville Hosp. Ep.University of Virginia0

65.7% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 1% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,580 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
99.0

Prices here run about 1% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
27.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
7.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,580
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$526,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index99.0Bottom 48%of 6,0712023
Home price to income7.59Top 5%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate42.2%Bottom 6%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±65117,815Top 5%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$62$1,580Top 20%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$34,001$526,200Top 12%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.3%Top 9%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.6%Bottom 40%of 33,0282024 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, 7.1 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 — they say 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 22903 rather than 22903 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 78 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Richmond IntlRIC78 mi9,003 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD89 mi11,500 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF130 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
61
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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)
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)
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)
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.

22903 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.

22903
Charlottesville
Median household income
$69,340
vs
$74,824
Per capita income
$51,513
vs
$51,540
Population density
585/sq mi
vs
4,435/sq mi
Median home value
$526,200
vs
$486,700
Median gross rent
$1,580
vs
$1,540
Homeownership rate
42.2%
vs
44.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
66.4%
vs
62.5%
Poverty rate
21.1%
vs
19.6%
Median age
29.2
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.