West Falls Church, Virginia

Area Profile

31,279 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for West Falls Church, in Fairfax 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
Schools2171st of 2,668 cities measured27
Housing affordability2465th of 4,223 cities measured75
ClimateTop 42% of 4,223 cities measured72
Physical resilienceTop 23% of 4,182 cities measured80
AccessTop 37% of 4,226 cities measured95
Economic stabilityTop 15% of 4,226 cities measured76
The quick read

In the public schools here, 36% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.8 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing West Falls Church in the top 23% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
31,279
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$134,978
Top 7% nationally
Density
6,266/sq mi
5.0 sq mi of land
Median age
36.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Fairfax County
Virginia
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
16 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$706,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

52% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 93% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,186$134,978Top 7%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,745$58,006Top 11%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.9%Bottom 37%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.9 minTop 30%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher52.4%Top 10%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation73.4%Top 11%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,930Top 6%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$71,060Top 8%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024135k116k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $134,978 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 — Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers112,530$156,460
Business Operations Specialists, All Other76,600$104,770
Software Developers69,060$154,930
Retail Salespersons66,920$36,610
Management Analysts62,360$126,830
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,560$34,600

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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
35.7%
Bottom 14% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
46.7%
Bottom 10% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Falls Church HighFairfax County Public Schools2,17011.9
Jackson MiddleFairfax County Public Schools99113.056%67%
Westlawn ElementaryFairfax County Public Schools78914.924%34%
Pine Spring ElementaryFairfax County Public Schools60713.832%43%
Woodburn ElementaryFairfax County Public Schools48313.429%41%
Graham Road ElementaryFairfax County Public Schools43812.514%25%
Beech Tree ElementaryFairfax County Public Schools36612.247%61%
Falls Church Governor's Health Sciences AcademyFairfax County Public Schools0
Community Based EducationFairfax County Public Schools0
Falls Church High School AcademyFairfax County Public Schools0

68.6% 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 $2,066 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
18.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,066
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$706,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.24Top 13%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.1%Bottom 32%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±53910,959Top 5%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$115$2,066Top 8%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$24,244$706,800Top 6%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.4%Bottom 48%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.5%Bottom 22%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

6 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 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.8 inches, including 13.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and about 3 days a year pass 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 WASHINGTON REAGAN AP, 8.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall13.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
Cold waveModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

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

Fairfax County records 1.9 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 4.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.9 per 100,000 residents in Fairfax County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.7
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 Fairfax 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 West Falls Church rather than West Falls Church 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD16 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI35 mi10,503 ft
Richmond IntlRIC94 mi9,003 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WashingtonDistrict of Columbia681,29465vs West Falls Church
ArlingtonArlington County236,254vs West Falls Church
AlexandriaAlexandria city156,97661vs West Falls Church
GermantownMontgomery County90,719vs West Falls Church
FrederickFrederick County83,39570vs West Falls Church
WaldorfCharles County82,943vs West Falls Church
Silver SpringMontgomery County81,462vs West Falls Church
CentrevilleFairfax County71,706vs West Falls Church
Dale CityPrince William County71,016vs West Falls Church
GaithersburgMontgomery County69,82568vs West Falls Church
BethesdaMontgomery County69,397vs West Falls Church
RockvilleMontgomery County67,67171vs West Falls Church

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
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 West Falls Church

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2204235,483$138,255