Front Royal, Virginia

Area Profile

15,296 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Front Royal, in Warren 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
Opportunity3133rd of 3,904 published cities41
Schools1463rd of 2,668 published cities48
Housing affordability2663rd of 4,223 published cities72
Climate2244th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilience2796th of 4,182 published cities43
Access3473rd of 4,226 published cities76
Economic stability2795th of 4,226 published cities52
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.7% and the Opportunity signal places Front Royal in the bottom 20%.

In the public schools here, 51% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.7 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.8 times that income.

At a glance

Population
15,296
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,838
Bottom 47% nationally
Density
1,489/sq mi
10.3 sq mi of land
Median age
37.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Warren County
Virginia
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
39 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$314,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.9% over the past year, to 20,450 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,242$64,838Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,270$33,846Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.3%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute35.1 minTop 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.8%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment20,450Bottom 26%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.2%Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.9%Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force21,227Bottom 25%June 2026
Labor force participation62.8%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,930Top 6%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$71,060Top 8%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202465k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,838 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 Warren County, VA, which contains this city.

51% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 61% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
50.7%
Bottom 44% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
60.8%
Bottom 38% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Skyline HighWarren County Public Schools84814.6
Warren County HighWarren County Public Schools77213.3
Ressie Jeffries ElementaryWarren County Public Schools64915.555%63%
Warren County MiddleWarren County Public Schools56912.647%67%
Skyline MiddleWarren County Public Schools53611.242%52%
Leslie Fox Keyser ElementaryWarren County Public Schools47413.552%64%
E. Wilson Morrison ElementaryWarren County Public Schools45813.147%55%
Hilda J. Barbour ElementaryWarren County Public Schools45315.155%59%
A.S. Rhodes ElementaryWarren County Public Schools26516.662%67%

73.9% 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 $1,135 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,135
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$314,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.85Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate58.2%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3466,391Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$1,135Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,262$314,400Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.5%Bottom 36%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 →

Population has grown 4% since 2020, reaching 15,628 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k15k
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 87°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.4 inches, including 21.1 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FRONT ROYAL, 1.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall21.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°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

43 / 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 85% of measured US cities.

HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate
Inland floodingElevated
LightningModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, heat wave, avalanche, earthquake, strong wind, winter weather, hail, wildfire, tornado, ice storm.

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.

Warren 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 10.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.1 per 100,000 residents in Warren County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.8
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 Warren 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 Front Royal rather than Front Royal 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 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD39 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI83 mi10,503 ft
Richmond IntlRIC109 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 Front Royal
ArlingtonArlington County236,254vs Front Royal
AlexandriaAlexandria city156,97661vs Front Royal
GermantownMontgomery County90,719vs Front Royal
FrederickFrederick County83,39570vs Front Royal
WaldorfCharles County82,943vs Front Royal
Silver SpringMontgomery County81,462vs Front Royal
CentrevilleFairfax County71,706vs Front Royal
Dale CityPrince William County71,016vs Front Royal
GaithersburgMontgomery County69,82568vs Front Royal
BethesdaMontgomery County69,397vs Front Royal
RockvilleMontgomery County67,67171vs Front Royal

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)
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 Front Royal

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2263035,615$84,631