Winchester, Virginia

Area Profile

27,913 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Winchester, in Winchester city.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 25% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3054th of 3,904 published cities43
Schools2007th of 2,668 published cities32
Growth2456th of 2,973 published cities30
Housing affordability3354th of 4,223 published cities60
Climate2282nd of 4,223 published cities69
Physical resilienceTop 24% of 4,182 published cities80
Access3535th of 4,226 published cities74
Economic stability3175th of 4,226 published cities45
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.9% and the Opportunity signal places Winchester in the bottom 22%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 63 units authorized over the past twelve months, 44% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Winchester in the top 24% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
27,913
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,974
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
3,036/sq mi
9.2 sq mi of land
Median age
36.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Winchester city
Virginia
Metro area
Winchester, VA-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
41 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$343,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.6% over the past year, to 13,938 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,269$63,974Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,208$36,588Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.5%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.6 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.3%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,938Bottom 12%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.9%Bottom 4%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.6%Bottom 13%June 2026
Labor force14,509Bottom 11%June 2026
Labor force participation65.0%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,410Bottom 16%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,070Bottom 16%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 29%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.22.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% 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
202120222023202465k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,974 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 — Winchester, VA-WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons2,290$30,780
Stockers and Order Fillers1,840$36,170
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,700$28,360
Cashiers1,690$29,600
Registered Nurses1,630$95,650
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1,580$41,910

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.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 55% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
44.9%
Bottom 35% in Virginia
Reading proficiency
55.2%
Bottom 26% in Virginia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
John Handley HighWinchester City Public Schools1,36122.0
James Wood MiddleFrederick County Public Schools87312.732%47%
Daniel Morgan MiddleWinchester City Public Schools64222.155%62%
John Kerr ElementaryWinchester City Public Schools58314.951%59%
Daniel Morgan IntermediateWinchester City Public Schools57521.337%52%
Virginia Avenue Charlotte Dehart ElementaryWinchester City Public Schools41515.450%57%
Garland R. Quarles ElementaryWinchester City Public Schools41014.650%55%
Frederick Douglass ElementaryWinchester City Public Schools37613.050%59%

81.8% 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 $1,315 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
24.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,315
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$343,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.36Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate43.6%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3912,541Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$78$1,315Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,190$343,000Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.7%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.4%Bottom 44%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
30/ 100
Ranks 2456 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 27,800 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward 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 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
63
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Top 50% nationally
Year over year
−44%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202428k28k
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
202220232024202525966
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−74%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.0 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MARTINSBURG E WV RGNL AP, 18.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation39.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

80 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 93% of measured US cities.

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, strong wind, hail, inland flooding, lightning, tornado, landslide, ice storm, wildfire, drought, 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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Winchester city records 3.1 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 10.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.3 per 100,000 residents in Winchester city.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.7
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 Winchester city 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 Winchester rather than Winchester 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 41 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD41 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI81 mi10,503 ft
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE100 mi8,222 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
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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.

ZIP codes in Winchester

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2260129,230$64,25854