Williamsburg, Virginia

Area Profile

15,798 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Williamsburg, in James City County.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 49% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3618th of 3,904 published cities31
SchoolsTop 32% of 2,668 published cities65
GrowthTop 44% of 2,973 published cities54
Housing affordability3144th of 4,223 published cities64
ClimateTop 21% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilienceTop 16% of 4,182 published cities85
Access2207th of 4,226 published cities91
Economic stability4040th of 4,226 published cities27
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.5% and the Opportunity signal places Williamsburg in the bottom 7%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Williamsburg 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
15,798
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,604
Top 39% nationally
Density
1,768/sq mi
8.9 sq mi of land
Median age
23.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
James City County
Virginia
Metro area
Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC
Nearest major airport
PHF
15 mi · Newport News/Williamsburg Intl
Median home value
$428,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.5% is lower than 5% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.0% over the past year, to 6,683 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 86% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,916$75,604Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,185$37,442Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate18.8%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.5 minBottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher45.8%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment6,683Bottom 1%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.2%Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.0%Bottom 18%June 2026
Labor force7,145Bottom 1%June 2026
Labor force participation48.7%Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,130Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,430Bottom 37%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.1%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.5%Top 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.53.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 6.5% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202476k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,604 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.

63% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 72% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
19
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
63.0%
Top 36% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
71.9%
Top 37% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Warhill HighWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools1,27716.0
Lafayette HighWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools1,24717.1
Stonehouse ElementaryWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools83816.172%82%
Lois Hornsby MiddleWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools80514.657%77%
Bruton HighYork County Public Schools72312.7
Berkeley MiddleWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools66614.862%82%
Magruder ElementaryYork County Public Schools61014.568%79%
Matoaka ElementaryWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools59514.975%79%
Norge ElementaryWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools57810.955%59%
Queens Lake MiddleYork County Public Schools55413.567%77%
Laurel Lane ElementaryWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools52612.264%64%
D.J. Montague ElementaryWilliamsburg-James City County Public Schools51513.662%70%

47.8% 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 $1,407 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,407
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$428,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.66Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.2%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±395,799Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$95$1,407Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$30,763$428,100Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.3%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.4%Top 38%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
54/ 100
Top 44% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

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.

Population has grown 4% since 2020, reaching 16,030 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
35
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.2
Bottom 49% nationally
Year over year
+46%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k15k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020222023202420254610
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−21%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.1 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEWPORT NEWS INTL AP, 15.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation45.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 76% of measured US cities.

HurricaneElevated
Ice stormModerate
DroughtElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, inland flooding, winter weather, lightning, wildfire, tornado, strong wind, cold wave, hail.

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.

James City County records 2.7 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 13.4 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 James City County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.7
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 James City 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 Williamsburg rather than Williamsburg 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF15 mi8,003 ft
Richmond IntlRIC37 mi9,003 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD123 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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Area Score
61
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Other cities in Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Virginia BeachVirginia Beach city456,34969vs Williamsburg
ChesapeakeChesapeake city252,58368vs Williamsburg
NorfolkNorfolk city233,59656vs Williamsburg
Newport NewsNewport News city184,21655vs Williamsburg
HamptonHampton city137,55763vs Williamsburg
SuffolkSuffolk city98,79665vs Williamsburg
PortsmouthPortsmouth city97,19054vs Williamsburg
PoquosonPoquoson city12,63971vs Williamsburg
Gloucester PointGloucester County11,109vs Williamsburg

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
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.

ZIP codes in Williamsburg

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2318555,270$105,43166
2318845,803$103,16066