Culpeper, Virginia

Area Profile

20,794 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Culpeper, in Culpeper County.

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
Opportunity2131st of 3,904 cities measured54
Schools1742nd of 2,668 cities measured40
Housing affordabilityTop 38% of 4,223 cities measured87
Climate2357th of 4,223 cities measured69
Physical resilience2148th of 4,182 cities measured57
Access3510th of 4,226 cities measured75
Economic stabilityTop 39% of 4,226 cities measured66
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.6% and median household income $94,721, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 49% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.3 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 18% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.1 times that income.

At a glance

Population
20,794
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$94,721
Top 22% nationally
Density
2,757/sq mi
7.5 sq mi of land
Median age
32.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Culpeper County
Virginia
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
44 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$390,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 80% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.7% over the past year, to 27,234 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 70% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$11,972$94,721Top 22%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,140$37,739Top 38%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.8%Top 43%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute34.0 minTop 19%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.7%Top 30%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,234Bottom 35%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.1%Bottom 10%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.7%Bottom 12%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force28,242Bottom 34%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation68.8%Top 21%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,930Top 6%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$71,060Top 8%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 29%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 20%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202495k80k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $94,721 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 — Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers112,530$156,460
Business Operations Specialists, All Other76,600$104,770
Software Developers69,060$154,930
Retail Salespersons66,920$36,610
Management Analysts62,360$126,830
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,560$34,600

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 Culpeper County, VA, which contains this city.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.9%
Bottom 40% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
58.7%
Bottom 32% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Eastern View HighCulpeper County Public Schools1,52916.1
Culpeper County HighCulpeper County Public Schools1,20416.1
Culpeper MiddleCulpeper County Public Schools1,04014.251%62%
Floyd T. Binns MiddleCulpeper County Public Schools82513.152%67%
Emerald Hill ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools70216.363%70%
Sycamore Park ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools68915.337%45%
Yowell ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools68717.250%57%
Pearl Sample ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools68015.837%52%
A.G. Richardson ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools56315.256%59%
Farmington ElementaryCulpeper County Public Schools45314.642%52%
Galbreath-Marshall BuildingCulpeper County Public Schools99.0

64.8% 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 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 $1,416 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,416
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$390,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.12Top 25%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.2%Bottom 19%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3897,137Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$89$1,416Top 23%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,615$390,000Top 19%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.9%Bottom 46%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.3%Bottom 16%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 →

Population has grown 6% since 2020, reaching 21,464 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202421k20k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 23°F.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BOSTON 4 SE, 7.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
MetricValueSource period
Average January low23°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°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

57 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 79% of measured US cities.

DroughtElevated
HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate
TornadoModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, heat wave, hail, landslide, winter weather, wildfire, ice storm, avalanche.

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.

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.

Culpeper County records 0.0 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 10.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.9 per 100,000 residents in Culpeper County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.4
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 Culpeper 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 Culpeper rather than Culpeper 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 44 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD44 mi11,500 ft
Richmond IntlRIC76 mi9,003 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI87 mi10,503 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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Other cities in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WashingtonDistrict of Columbia681,29465vs Culpeper
ArlingtonArlington County236,254vs Culpeper
AlexandriaAlexandria city156,97661vs Culpeper
GermantownMontgomery County90,719vs Culpeper
FrederickFrederick County83,39570vs Culpeper
WaldorfCharles County82,943vs Culpeper
Silver SpringMontgomery County81,462vs Culpeper
CentrevilleFairfax County71,706vs Culpeper
Dale CityPrince William County71,016vs Culpeper
GaithersburgMontgomery County69,82568vs Culpeper
BethesdaMontgomery County69,397vs Culpeper
RockvilleMontgomery County67,67171vs Culpeper

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.

Compare

Put Culpeper side by side with a similar place.

Culpeper vs MiddletownCulpeper vs Toms RiverCulpeper vs MebaneCulpeper vs Crowley

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

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 Culpeper

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2270138,512$97,892