Dale City, Virginia

Area Profile

71,016 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dale City, in Prince William County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Schools1658th of 2,668 cities measured42
Housing affordabilityTop 40% of 4,223 cities measured86
ClimateTop 25% of 4,223 cities measured76
Physical resilienceTop 34% of 4,182 cities measured71
Access2488th of 4,226 cities measured90
Economic stabilityTop 13% of 4,226 cities measured77
The quick read

In the public schools here, 46% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.2 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.8 times that income.

A typical July reaches 88°F and a typical January falls to 28°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
71,016
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,994
Top 13% nationally
Density
4,990/sq mi
14.2 sq mi of land
Median age
35.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Prince William County
Virginia
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
21 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$425,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,680$111,994Top 13%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,759$42,331Top 28%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.0%Bottom 33%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute40.7 minTop 7%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.5%Top 26%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation70.4%Top 17%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
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024113k101k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,994 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.1%
Bottom 36% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
64.5%
Bottom 43% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Forest Park HighPrince William County Public Schools2,34316.5
C.D. Hylton HighPrince William County Public Schools1,85916.0
Stuart M. Beville MiddlePrince William County Public Schools1,18113.737%62%
George M. Hampton MiddlePrince William County Public Schools89312.232%67%
Kyle R. Wilson ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools87516.557%70%
Fannie W. Fitzgerald ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools82914.846%63%
Sonnie Penn ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools74416.970%73%
River Oaks ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools66214.162%78%
Neabsco ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools63514.137%49%
Minnieville ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools58416.749%67%
Rosa Parks ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools54715.256%75%
Dale City ElementaryPrince William County Public Schools44315.833%57%

65.2% 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 10% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,876 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
109.5

Prices here run about 10% above 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
20.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,876
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$425,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index109.5Top 27%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.80Top 30%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.3%Top 43%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±68422,031Top 3%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$82$1,876Top 11%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,255$425,500Top 16%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.1%Top 40%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.5%Bottom 17%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 →

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

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.0 inches, including 12.4 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station QUANTICO MCAS, 10.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall12.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
49
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

71 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Prince William County records 3.3 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 7.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.4 per 100,000 residents in Prince William County.

Homicide
3.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.2
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 Prince William 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 Dale City rather than Dale City 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 21 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD21 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI51 mi10,503 ft
Richmond IntlRIC79 mi9,003 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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Other cities in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WashingtonDistrict of Columbia681,29465vs Dale City
ArlingtonArlington County236,254vs Dale City
AlexandriaAlexandria city156,97661vs Dale City
GermantownMontgomery County90,719vs Dale City
FrederickFrederick County83,39570vs Dale City
WaldorfCharles County82,943vs Dale City
Silver SpringMontgomery County81,462vs Dale City
CentrevilleFairfax County71,706vs Dale City
GaithersburgMontgomery County69,82568vs Dale City
BethesdaMontgomery County69,397vs Dale City
RockvilleMontgomery County67,67171vs Dale City
RestonFairfax County64,414vs Dale City

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
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
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)
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 Dale City

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2219381,588$117,337