Gillette, Wyoming

Area Profile

33,431 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gillette, in Campbell County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 43% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 42% of 3,904 published cities60
Growth2034th of 2,973 published cities40
Housing affordabilityTop 14% of 4,223 published cities97
Climate3954th of 4,223 published cities55
Physical resilience2560th of 4,182 published cities47
Access4111th of 4,226 published cities46
Economic stabilityTop 47% of 4,226 published cities62
The quick read

Unemployment is 2.5% and median household income $81,316, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 14% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

A typical July reaches 87°F and a typical January falls to 14°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
33,431
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,316
Top 32% nationally
Density
1,441/sq mi
23.2 sq mi of land
Median age
34.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Campbell County
Wyoming
Metro area
Gillette, WY
Nearest major airport
SHR
81 mi · Sheridan County
Median home value
$264,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.5% is lower than 99% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Unemployment has been falling for 5 consecutive months, most recently 2.5%.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 15,682 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,973$81,316Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,625$38,797Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.8%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.9 minBottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.8%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,682Bottom 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.7%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force16,088Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force participation69.4%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.5%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.22.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.5% 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
202120222023202491k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,316 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.

47% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.7%
Reading proficiency
49.9%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Campbell County High SchoolCampbell County School District #11,21215.7
Thunder Basin High SchoolCampbell County School District #11,20616.3
Twin Spruce Junior High SchoolCampbell County School District #166714.237%51%
Sage Valley Junior High SchoolCampbell County School District #158913.158%58%
Stocktrail ElementaryCampbell County School District #155415.847%64%
Buffalo Ridge ElementaryCampbell County School District #141314.241%48%
Prairie Wind ElementaryCampbell County School District #140413.561%51%
Lakeview ElementaryCampbell County School District #137811.131%40%
Hillcrest ElementaryCampbell County School District #137011.235%38%
Conestoga ElementaryCampbell County School District #134810.540%40%
Pronghorn ElementaryCampbell County School District #133411.157%49%
Sunflower ElementaryCampbell County School District #131113.058%58%

42.2% 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 $976 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$976
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$264,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.25Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.2%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±39314,216Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$77$976Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,650$264,500Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.4%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.7%Top 47%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
40/ 100
Ranks 2034 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 1% since 2020, reaching 33,846 in 2024.

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

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
33
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
+43%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202434k33k
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
2020202120222023202420253721
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−28%).

Weather & climate

4 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 14°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 13.6 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GILLETTE CAMPBELL AP, 5.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation13.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low14°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing46°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

47 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailHigh
WildfireHigh
Cold waveModerate
EarthquakeElevated
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 81 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Sheridan CountySHR81 mi8,301 ft
Casper/Natrona County IntlCPR106 mi10,165 ft
Rapid City RgnlRAP122 mi8,701 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
58
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Put Gillette side by side with a similar place.

Gillette vs LewistonGillette vs DunmoreGillette vs HuronGillette vs Hastings

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
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 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 Gillette

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8271826,619$104,45860
8271616,817$73,15552