23294Laurel, Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 23294.

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
Opportunity4029th of 6,210 published ZIP areas48
Schools3558th of 4,422 published ZIP areas27
Housing affordability5627th of 6,685 published ZIP areas54
ClimateTop 29% of 6,789 published ZIP areas75
Physical resilienceTop 16% of 6,709 published ZIP areas85
AccessTop 47% of 6,791 published ZIP areas94
Economic stabilityTop 41% of 6,742 published ZIP areas64
The quick read

Rent takes 30% of median household income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 23294 in the top 16% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
20,216
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,164
Bottom 37% nationally
Density
4,765/sq mi
4.2 sq mi of land
Median age
32.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Laurel
Virginia
Metro area
Richmond, VA
Nearest major airport
RIC
15 mi · Richmond Intl
Median home value
$294,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 78% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,149$64,164Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,437$36,771Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.3%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.0 minBottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.9%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment176,634Top 24%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force183,472Top 24%June 2026
Labor force participation74.9%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,400Top 45%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,460Top 41%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 34%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 22%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202467k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,164 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Laurel, VA, the city containing this ZIP code.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 52% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.8%
Bottom 27% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
51.5%
Bottom 26% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
John Randolph Tucker HighHenrico County Public Schools2,13218.9
Skipwith ElementaryHenrico County Public Schools60315.937%51%
R.C. Longan ElementaryHenrico County Public Schools49115.337%52%

88.5% 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 $1,625 takes 30% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
30.4%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,625
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$294,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.59Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate35.7%Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4488,920Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$51$1,625Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,898$294,500Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income30.4%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 28%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 89°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.8 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ASHLAND HANOVER CO MUNI AP, 7.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation45.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing41°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

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, winter weather, heat wave, inland flooding, strong wind, tornado, 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. 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. 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 23294 rather than 23294 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 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Richmond IntlRIC15 mi9,003 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF67 mi8,003 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD91 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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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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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.

23294 vs Laurel

How this ZIP area compares with Laurel as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

23294
Laurel
Median household income
$64,164
vs
$73,609
Per capita income
$36,771
vs
$38,535
Population density
4,765/sq mi
vs
3,475/sq mi
Median home value
$294,500
vs
$283,600
Median gross rent
$1,625
vs
$1,616
Homeownership rate
35.7%
vs
51.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
36.9%
vs
29.8%
Poverty rate
14.3%
vs
8.4%
Median age
32.3
vs
35.1

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.