Albany County, WY

County Profile

38,249 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Albany County, WY.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

75out of 100
Area Score
Top 9% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 3% of 1,255 counties measured85
GrowthTop 22% of 1,226 counties measured65
Housing affordability1010th of 1,255 counties measured75
Climate1235th of 1,254 counties measured49
Physical resilienceTop 10% of 1,255 counties measured89
AccessTop 29% of 1,255 counties measured90
Economic stability702nd of 1,255 counties measured58
The quick read

Albany County ranks in the top 3% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.3% and median household income of $61,917.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.4 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 18% of it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Albany County in the top 10% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
38,249
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,917
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
9/sq mi
4274.2 sq mi of land
Median age
28.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Albany County
Wyoming
Metro area
Laramie, WY
Nearest major airport
LAR
25 mi · Laramie Rgnl
Median home value
$333,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.3% is lower than 99% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 2.8% over the past year, to 21,181 employed residents.

55% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 98% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,755$61,917Bottom 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,968$37,723Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$53,940Bottom 40%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate20.9%Top 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.6 minBottom 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher55.0%Top 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,181Bottom 26%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.9%Top 9%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.8%Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force21,679Bottom 25%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation69.6%Top 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 8%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate2.3%Bottom 1%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.02.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.3% 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
202120222023202462k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,917 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.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 56% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
52.3%
Reading proficiency
56.2%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Laramie High SchoolAlbany County School District #11,07016.5
Laramie Middle SchoolAlbany County School District #173514.447%57%
Slade ElementaryAlbany County School District #144011.660%50%
Spring Creek ElementaryAlbany County School District #130710.647%61%
Indian Paintbrush ElementaryAlbany County School District #126911.248%45%
Snowy Range Academy · charterAlbany County School District #126011.363%70%
Velma Linford ElementaryAlbany County School District #125011.948%45%
UW Laboratory SchoolAlbany County School District #11629.061%74%
Laramie Montessori Charter School · charterAlbany County School District #19712.1
Whiting High SchoolAlbany County School District #1433.9
Rock River High SchoolAlbany County School District #1364.0
Rock River ElementaryAlbany County School District #1357.0

33.8% 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 Wyoming’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 $931 takes 18% 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
18.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$931
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$333,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.38Top 6%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate50.0%Bottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4018,851Top 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$34$931Top 40%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,653$333,000Top 15%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.0%Top 38%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.4%Bottom 27%of 3,2222024 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
65/ 100
Top 22% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 grown 6% since 2020, reaching 39,288 in 2024.

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

At 2.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
106
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.8
Bottom 48% nationally
Year over year
+12%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202439k37k
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
202220232024202512897
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−16%).

Weather & climate

3 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 10°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 10.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 50, in the Good band, and about 13 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LARAMIE RGNL AP, 24.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation10.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low10°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months31991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100132024 calendar year
Median air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
50
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
80
90th percentile index
Days above 100
13
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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Cold waveModerate
WildfireElevated
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, landslide, avalanche, lightning, ice storm, inland flooding, tornado, strong wind.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Albany County records 3.2 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 18.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.4 per 100,000 residents in Albany County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
26.1
per 100,000 residents

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 Albany 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 Albany County rather than Albany County 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Laramie RgnlLAR25 mi8,503 ft
Cheyenne Rgnl/Jerry Olson FldCYS59 mi9,270 ft
Shively FldSAA59 mi8,801 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
75
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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
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.

Cities in Albany County, WY