AreaProfile

23455Virginia Beach, Virginia

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 23455.

70
Area Score
Top 16% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 47% of 6,210 published ZIP areas56
SchoolsTop 12% of 4,422 published ZIP areas82
Growth3851st of 5,428 published ZIP areas37
Housing affordability3722nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas76
ClimateTop 31% of 6,789 published ZIP areas75
Physical resilienceTop 8% of 6,709 published ZIP areas92
Access4911th of 6,791 published ZIP areas84
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 6,742 published ZIP areas74
The quick read

Public schools test above most of the state: 75% of students met the mathematics standard, placing the area in the top 12% of published profiles for schools.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 23455 in the top 8% for physical resilience.

Its Area Score of 70 places 23455 in the top 16% of published ZIP profiles.

At a glance

Population
49,977
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$94,069
Top 23% nationally
Density
3,294/sq mi
15.2 sq mi of land
Median age
39.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Virginia Beach
Virginia
Metro area
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC
Nearest major airport
PHF
26 mi · Newport News/Williamsburg Intl
Median home value
$418,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 2.0% over the past year, to 222,483 employed residents.

43% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,440$94,069Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,789$50,780Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.4%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.7 minBottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher43.0%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment222,483Top 21%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.4%Bottom 9%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.0%Bottom 19%June 2026
Labor force230,912Top 21%June 2026
Labor force participation67.5%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,130Bottom 32%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,430Bottom 42%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 31%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 22%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202494k78k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $94,069 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 — Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers22,520$28,780
Retail Salespersons20,890$30,820
General and Operations Managers17,400$100,340
Registered Nurses16,870$89,450
Cashiers16,840$29,320
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand13,920$39,160

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 Virginia Beach, VA, the city containing this ZIP code.

75% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 80% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
75.1%
Top 8% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
80.3%
Top 15% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bayside HighVirginia Beach City Public Schools1,98417.0
Old Donation SchoolVirginia Beach City Public Schools1,37716.098%98%
Independence MiddleVirginia Beach City Public Schools1,19315.782%82%
Thoroughgood ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools76718.782%89%
Hermitage ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools55216.261%71%
Bayside ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools54611.951%58%
Pembroke Meadows ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools48514.370%76%
Luxford ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools47612.251%58%
Shelton Park ElementaryVirginia Beach City Public Schools41613.452%76%

53.3% 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 $1,664 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,664
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$418,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.44Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.6%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±78422,134Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$84$1,664Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,685$418,000Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.2%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 27%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
37/ 100
Ranks 3851 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.

65% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 1.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
622
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.4
Bottom 32% nationally
Year over year
+23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
64.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Virginia Beach, 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 89°F and January a low of 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 49.2 inches, including 6.2 inches of snow.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NORFOLK INTL AP, 3.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation49.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall6.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing39°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

92 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, earthquake, coastal flooding, tornado, cold wave, wildfire, hail, ice storm, winter weather, inland flooding, drought, landslide, strong wind.

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 26 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF26 mi8,003 ft
Richmond IntlRIC78 mi9,003 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO135 mi11,498 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
70
Your Score

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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)
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 29, 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.

23455 vs Virginia Beach

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

23455
Virginia Beach
Median household income
$94,069
vs
$92,968
Per capita income
$50,780
vs
$48,736
Population density
3,294/sq mi
vs
1,865/sq mi
Median home value
$418,000
vs
$382,500
Median gross rent
$1,664
vs
$1,714
Homeownership rate
61.6%
vs
65.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
43.0%
vs
40.9%
Poverty rate
6.4%
vs
8.6%
Median age
39.0
vs
37.9

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.