Highland Springs, Virginia

Area Profile

14,296 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Highland Springs, in Henrico 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
Opportunity3015th of 3,904 published cities43
Schools2603rd of 2,668 published cities11
Housing affordability2790th of 4,223 published cities70
ClimateTop 28% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilienceTop 16% of 4,182 published cities85
AccessTop 29% of 4,226 published cities97
Economic stability3075th of 4,226 published cities47
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.7% and the Opportunity signal places Highland Springs in the bottom 23%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Highland Springs in the top 16% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 3 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
14,296
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$57,599
Bottom 35% nationally
Density
1,793/sq mi
8.0 sq mi of land
Median age
38.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Henrico County
Virginia
Metro area
Richmond, VA
Nearest major airport
RIC
3 mi · Richmond Intl
Median home value
$227,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 2.1% over the past year, to 176,634 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,167$57,599Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,466$29,401Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.0%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.0%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment176,634Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force183,472Top 31%June 2026
Labor force participation64.1%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,400Top 50%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,460Top 46%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
202120222023202458k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $57,599 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 — Richmond, VA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers17,100$29,500
Retail Salespersons16,210$33,580
General and Operations Managers15,770$108,670
Registered Nurses15,700$93,580
Cashiers14,460$30,350
Stockers and Order Fillers12,300$37,180

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 Henrico County, VA, which contains this city.

10% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 26% 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
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
10.4%
Bottom 1% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
26.4%
Bottom 1% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Highland Springs HighHenrico County Public Schools1,92816.6
Highland Springs ElementaryHenrico County Public Schools46913.45%21%
Fair Oaks ElementaryHenrico County Public Schools33011.418%34%
Adult Education CenterHenrico County Public Schools0
Advanced Career Education Center at Highland SpringsHenrico County Public Schools0
ISEAP ProgramHenrico County Public Schools0
General Academic DevelopmentHenrico County Public Schools0

87.3% 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 $1,269 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
26.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,269
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$227,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.95Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.3%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4106,482Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$153$1,269Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,324$227,300Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.4%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 41%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 →

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 90°F and January a low of 29°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.5 inches, including 8.8 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RICHMOND INTL AP, 3.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index55.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation45.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall8.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low29°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
55
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeElevated
Ice stormModerate
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, heat wave, winter weather, inland flooding, tornado, strong wind, hail, 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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Henrico County records 6.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher 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 14.3 per 100,000 residents in Henrico County.

Homicide
6.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.6
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 Henrico 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 Highland Springs rather than Highland Springs 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 3 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Richmond IntlRIC3 mi9,003 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF54 mi8,003 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD97 mi11,500 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 Richmond, VA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RichmondRichmond city229,35958vs Highland Springs
TuckahoeHenrico County49,183vs Highland Springs
MechanicsvilleHanover County38,683vs Highland Springs
PetersburgDinwiddie County33,53749vs Highland Springs
Short PumpHenrico County29,026vs Highland Springs
ChesterChesterfield County24,474vs Highland Springs
HopewellPrince George County22,95951vs Highland Springs
MeadowbrookChesterfield County20,749vs Highland Springs
MidlothianChesterfield County19,120vs Highland Springs
LaurelHenrico County18,721vs Highland Springs
Colonial HeightsChesterfield County18,35263vs Highland Springs
Glen AllenHenrico County17,551vs Highland Springs

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)
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 Highland Springs

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
230758,347$55,567