24401Staunton, Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 24401.

62out of 100
Area Score
Top 42% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 28% of 6,210 published ZIP areas66
SchoolsTop 36% of 4,422 published ZIP areas62
Growth3158th of 5,428 published ZIP areas45
Housing affordabilityTop 43% of 6,685 published ZIP areas85
ClimateTop 50% of 6,789 published ZIP areas70
Physical resilienceTop 42% of 6,709 published ZIP areas66
Access6739th of 6,791 published ZIP areas10
Economic stability4424th of 6,742 published ZIP areas51
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $66,300, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 94 units authorized over the past twelve months, 28% below the prior year.

The nearest major airport is 104 miles away, which is farther than most measured US ZIP areas.

At a glance

Population
38,756
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,300
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
293/sq mi
132.4 sq mi of land
Median age
43.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Staunton
Virginia
Metro area
Staunton-Stuarts Draft, VA
Nearest major airport
IAD
104 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$278,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 86% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 12,840 employed residents.

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 73% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,439$66,300Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,026$37,344Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.6 minBottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.4%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment12,840Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.0%Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 34%June 2026
Labor force13,307Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force participation58.9%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$57,310Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,040Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,300 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 — Staunton-Stuarts Draft, VA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1,880$47,310
Retail Salespersons1,520$33,440
Registered Nurses1,500$92,390
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,470$29,310
Cashiers1,330$29,530
Stockers and Order Fillers1,240$36,880

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 Staunton, VA, the city containing this ZIP code.

55% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 68% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
54.8%
Top 45% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
68.1%
Top 42% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Staunton HighStaunton City Public Schools76613.2
Riverheads ElementaryAugusta County Public Schools71415.570%75%
Shelburne MiddleStaunton City Public Schools58311.937%62%
Riverheads HighAugusta County Public Schools46713.7
Thomas C. McSwain ElementaryStaunton City Public Schools44914.563%75%
Bessie Weller ElementaryStaunton City Public Schools37312.041%56%
Arthur R. Ware ElementaryStaunton City Public Schools37212.056%69%
Staunton City School PreSchool ProgramsStaunton City Public Schools14918.6
Virginia School for the Deaf and the BlindVirginia School for the Deaf and Blind-Staunton652.2
Western St. Hosp. Ed. Pr.Western State Hospital0
Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention HomeDepartment of Education State-Operated Educ Prgms0

78.0% 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 $1,041 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,041
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$278,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.20Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.3%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±41118,086Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$1,041Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,382$278,600Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.8%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.1%Bottom 33%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 →
Development Momentum
45/ 100
Ranks 3158 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 17% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 3.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
94
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.6
Top 41% nationally
Year over year
−28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
17.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Staunton, VA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.6 inches, including 21.6 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 STAUNTON WTP, 2.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation40.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall21.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing40°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

66 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
HurricaneModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Winter weatherModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, hail, lightning, wildfire, drought, avalanche, heat wave, 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. 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.

Augusta County records 3.7 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 19.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.7 per 100,000 residents in Augusta County.

Homicide
3.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
24.3
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 Augusta 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 24401 rather than 24401 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

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 104 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD104 mi11,500 ft
Richmond IntlRIC106 mi9,003 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO148 mi10,001 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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Area Score
62
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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
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

24401 vs Staunton

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

24401
Staunton
Median household income
$66,300
vs
$65,581
Per capita income
$37,344
vs
$36,608
Population density
293/sq mi
vs
1,303/sq mi
Median home value
$278,600
vs
$259,200
Median gross rent
$1,041
vs
$1,024
Homeownership rate
65.3%
vs
60.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
34.4%
vs
37.7%
Poverty rate
11.1%
vs
12.4%
Median age
43.6
vs
39.9

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.