Mechanicsville, Virginia

Area Profile

38,683 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Mechanicsville, in Hanover 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
SchoolsTop 3% of 2,668 cities measured91
Housing affordabilityTop 39% of 4,223 cities measured87
ClimateTop 28% of 4,223 cities measured75
Physical resilienceTop 20% of 4,182 cities measured82
AccessTop 29% of 4,226 cities measured97
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 4,226 cities measured73
The quick read

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.6 times that income.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Mechanicsville in the top 20% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 9 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
38,683
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$98,595
Top 19% nationally
Density
1,365/sq mi
28.3 sq mi of land
Median age
41.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hanover County
Virginia
Metro area
Richmond, VA
Nearest major airport
RIC
9 mi · Richmond Intl
Median home value
$351,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 77% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,537$98,595Top 19%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,722$45,231Top 23%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.2%Bottom 24%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.6 minBottom 44%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher35.8%Top 23%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation65.2%Top 33%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,400Top 50%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,460Top 46%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202499k85k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $98,595 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.

83% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 82% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
18
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
83.1%
Top 1% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
82.4%
Top 11% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Atlee HighHanover County Public Schools1,47015.3
Hanover HighHanover County Public Schools1,34914.4
Mechanicsville HighHanover County Public Schools1,24513.0
Chickahominy MiddleHanover County Public Schools1,19914.687%92%
Bell Creek MiddleHanover County Public Schools90311.787%77%
Oak Knoll MiddleHanover County Public Schools86212.187%87%
Cool Spring ElementaryHanover County Public Schools85215.280%82%
Kersey Creek ElementaryHanover County Public Schools67214.387%86%
Rural Point ElementaryHanover County Public Schools62714.690%86%
Laurel Meadow ElementaryHanover County Public Schools59113.179%84%
Mechanicsville ElementaryHanover County Public Schools57212.775%68%
Pearson's Corner ElementaryHanover County Public Schools57114.386%88%

26.5% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 2% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,724 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
98.3

Prices here run about 2% below 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
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,724
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$351,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index98.3Bottom 40%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.56Top 35%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.5%Bottom 49%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±44515,947Top 4%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$66$1,724Top 14%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,452$351,000Top 22%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 35%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 23%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 89°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 39, 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 ASHLAND HANOVER CO MUNI AP, 6.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation45.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index39.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
39
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

82 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, ice storm, heat wave, lightning, tornado, strong wind, hail, landslide, wildfire, winter weather, coastal flooding, 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Hanover 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 13.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.3 per 100,000 residents in Hanover County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.8
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 Hanover 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 Mechanicsville rather than Mechanicsville 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 9 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Richmond IntlRIC9 mi9,003 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF59 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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Other cities in Richmond, VA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RichmondRichmond city229,35958vs Mechanicsville
TuckahoeHenrico County49,183vs Mechanicsville
PetersburgDinwiddie County33,53749vs Mechanicsville
Short PumpHenrico County29,026vs Mechanicsville
ChesterChesterfield County24,474vs Mechanicsville
HopewellPrince George County22,95951vs Mechanicsville
MeadowbrookChesterfield County20,749vs Mechanicsville
MidlothianChesterfield County19,120vs Mechanicsville
LaurelHenrico County18,721vs Mechanicsville
Colonial HeightsChesterfield County18,35263vs Mechanicsville
Glen AllenHenrico County17,551vs Mechanicsville
Bon AirChesterfield County16,904vs Mechanicsville

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 Mechanicsville

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2311138,070$98,969
2311634,188$141,711