{ "state": { "code": "WA", "name": "Washington" }, "metrics": { "income": { "value": 99389, "label": "Income", "unit": "usd", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census ACS 1-yr 2024 (auto-updated)" }, "rentAcs": { "value": 1712, "label": "Rent paid", "unit": "usd", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25064: the median rent actually paid by people already living here, including utilities. Different from an asking-rent index, which tracks what new leases are listed at (not served by this API) — asking rent runs higher and moves sooner. This one covers every county, including Connecticut's planning regions, where the asking-rent index is still published for the counties abolished in 2022." }, "yearBuilt": { "value": 1985, "label": "Typical age", "unit": "year", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "The midpoint year for all housing in the county, from Census table B25035. It says what you would be buying into: wiring, insulation, materials and layout all track the era a house was built in. Read as a description of the whole stock rather than of what is for sale — a county that built heavily in 1965 and again last year shows a middling median that matches neither half." }, "builtPre1980": { "value": 43.4, "label": "Built before 1980", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "1980 is the practical line for lead paint and asbestos-era materials, which is why this is the cut rather than a round number of decades. A high share is not a verdict — older housing is often better built and better located — but it changes what an inspection should look for and what renovation costs. From Census table B25034." }, "mobileHome": { "value": 5.8, "label": "Manufactured homes", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Manufactured and mobile homes, plus the small number of boats, RVs and vans the Census counts as housing, as a share of all units. Both behave the same way for financing: conventional mortgages are harder to obtain and appreciation follows different rules. A high share often explains a county median home price that looks impossibly low. From Census table B25024." }, "vacancy": { "value": 7.3, "label": "Vacancy rate", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Every housing unit is counted as occupied or vacant, and this is the vacant share. It reads two opposite ways: economic decline, or a tourist economy where houses stand empty most of the year. The second-home share beside it separates the two — a dying town and a ski town both post high vacancy. From Census table B25002." }, "renterShare": { "value": 36.1, "label": "Renters", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Of the homes people actually live in, the share occupied by renters rather than owners. Vacant homes are excluded, so this is not affected by the second-home share. It shapes a lot of local character: how much turnover there is, how much of the housing stock is maintained by landlords, and how exposed the place is to rent rather than to mortgage rates." }, "seasonal": { "value": 2.5, "label": "Second homes", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Housing kept for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, as a share of all units rather than of vacant ones — a third of all homes being second homes describes a resort town, while a share of the vacant ones describes nothing. High figures mark places where locals compete with visitors for housing. Includes hunting cabins and inherited family places, not only resort condominiums. From Census table B25004." }, "fmr2": { "value": 2010, "label": "Fair market rent", "unit": "usd", "source": "U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development", "caveat": "What HUD judges a modest two-bedroom costs: the 40th percentile of standard-quality units, used to set housing voucher payments. Published for every county, which is why it appears where the Zillow index does not. It is not an asking-rent figure and is set for a whole Fair Market Rent area, so counties inside one metro share a number — read it as a floor for the local market rather than a listing price." }, "fmr1": { "value": 1675, "label": "Fair market rent, 1-bed", "unit": "usd", "source": "HUD", "caveat": "The same HUD 40th-percentile standard as the two-bedroom figure, for a one-bedroom. Published for every county on current geography, Connecticut's planning regions included." }, "fmr3": { "value": 2690, "label": "Fair market rent, 3-bed", "unit": "usd", "source": "HUD", "caveat": "The same HUD 40th-percentile standard for a three-bedroom — the size most families actually rent." }, "propTax": { "value": 0.75, "label": "Property tax", "unit": "pct", "source": "Tax Foundation", "caveat": "Effective rate — state: Tax Foundation 2026, county: Census ACS" }, "incTax": { "value": 0, "label": "Income tax", "unit": "pct", "source": "Tax Foundation", "caveat": "Top marginal rate, Tax Foundation 2026" }, "salesTax": { "value": 9.57, "label": "Sales tax", "unit": "pct", "source": "Tax Foundation", "caveat": "State + avg local, Tax Foundation Jul 2026" }, "weather": { "value": 50, "label": "Temperature", "unit": "deg", "source": "NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily", "caveat": "Annual average temperature in °F. NOAA nClimGrid provides county area averages across the contiguous U.S.; Alaska and Hawaii retain the statewide figure." }, "rain": { "value": 56.5, "label": "Precipitation", "unit": "in", "source": "NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily", "caveat": "Total annual precipitation in inches, including rain and the liquid equivalent of snow. This is not a rainfall-only measure." }, "snow": { "value": 5.4, "label": "Snowfall", "unit": "in", "source": "ACIS / NOAA climate stations", "caveat": "Measured annual snowfall in inches. County values are averaged from reporting stations in the ACIS climate network; a statewide figure is used only where no qualifying county station is available." }, "sunGhi": { "value": 3.56, "label": "Sunshine", "unit": "sun", "source": "NREL National Solar Radiation Database", "caveat": "Global horizontal irradiance: the solar energy reaching a horizontal surface, in kilowatt-hours per square metre per day, averaged over years. It is a measurement rather than a description, and it is used here because sunny days are not published for every county while this is. It tracks cloud cover closely, so it answers how grey a place is — the Olympic Peninsula and Arizona sit at opposite ends. It also indicates what a rooftop solar array would produce. Modelled from satellite cloud observations at roughly four kilometres, then read at the county's population-weighted centre, so a large county with varied terrain is represented by where its people live rather than by its average." }, "hotDays": { "value": 7.6, "label": "Hot days", "unit": "days", "source": "NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily", "caveat": "Number of days in the latest complete year when the county-average daily high reached at least 90°F. This describes heat frequency, not heat-health risk." }, "elecBill": { "value": 130, "label": "Electric bill", "unit": "usd", "source": "U.S. Energy Information Administration", "caveat": "The monthly residential bill. The state figure is EIA’s own state series; the county figure is residential revenue divided by customers for each utility serving the county, then the median across them. Reflects both the local rate and how much electricity households actually use, so a cheap rate in a hot state can still produce a high bill." }, "elecUtilities": { "value": 3, "label": "Utilities serving", "unit": "int", "source": "EIA Form 861", "caveat": "How many bundled-service utilities report distribution equipment in this county. This is the context for the other electricity figures: one utility means they describe what households actually pay, while six means they are a median across six different prices. Rural counties are often served by a single cooperative; metropolitan counties by several." }, "elecPrice": { "value": 13.89, "label": "Electricity rate", "unit": "cents", "source": "U.S. Energy Information Administration", "caveat": "What a kilowatt-hour costs. The state figure is EIA’s own state series. The county figure is derived: EIA publishes prices by utility and separately lists the counties each utility has distribution equipment in, so this is the median rate among the utilities serving that county — see how many that is under Utilities serving. Customer counts are reported per utility per state, not per county, so a customer-weighted average is not computable and is not attempted. Bundled service only: in a retail-choice state a delivery-only utility bills for part of the supply, and including it would print a rate no household pays. Because the two levels are derived differently, a county can sit above or below its state figure for reasons other than local prices." }, "elecUsage": { "value": 935, "label": "Electricity use", "unit": "kwh", "source": "U.S. Energy Information Administration", "caveat": "How much electricity a household uses in a month. The state figure is EIA’s own state series; the county figure is residential sales divided by customers per serving utility, then the median. Driven mostly by climate and by whether homes heat with electricity — the highest figures are in the hot, humid south and in cold states without gas service." }, "gasPrice": { "value": 17.98, "label": "Natural gas", "unit": "usdMcf", "source": "U.S. Energy Information Administration", "caveat": "Dollars per thousand cubic feet, averaged over 24 months. Read this alongside how much gas a state actually burns: Florida looks three times dearer than Montana per unit, but that is because almost no Florida home heats with gas, so fixed monthly charges are spread over almost nothing. Where gas is the main heating fuel, the per-unit price falls in winter as volume rises." }, "heatElectric": { "value": 58.6, "label": "Electric heat", "unit": "pct1", "source": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25040", "caveat": "Share of occupied homes heating with electricity. This is the figure that explains the others: states where most homes heat electrically are exactly the ones with the highest kilowatt-hour use, which is why a cheap rate does not always mean a cheap bill." }, "heatGas": { "value": 33, "label": "Gas heat", "unit": "pct1", "source": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25040", "caveat": "Share of occupied homes heating with piped utility gas. Where this is low, the state's gas price barely matters — Florida's price per unit looks steep, but only about one home in twenty burns any." }, "heatPropane": { "value": 3, "label": "Propane heat", "unit": "pct1", "source": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25040", "caveat": "Share heating with bottled, tank or LP gas. Propane is delivered by truck at market prices rather than billed by a regulated utility, so it is both more volatile and easier to overlook when budgeting. Common wherever the gas main does not reach." }, "heatOil": { "value": 1.3, "label": "Fuel oil heat", "unit": "pct1", "source": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25040", "caveat": "Share heating with fuel oil or kerosene, concentrated heavily in New England — more than half of Maine’s homes. Like propane it is bought by the tankful at market prices, so a cold winter lands as a large one-off bill rather than a spread-out utility charge." }, "heatWood": { "value": 2.8, "label": "Wood heat", "unit": "pct1", "source": "Census ACS 5-year, table B25040", "caveat": "Share heating primarily with wood. Rarely the whole story — many rural homes supplement with a stove — but a useful signal of how rural and how self-supplied a county’s heating is." }, "minTempF": { "value": 7.8, "label": "Garden zone", "unit": "zone", "source": "NOAA RCC-ACIS, USDA band definitions", "caveat": "Average coldest winter temperature over the past 15 years, expressed as a plant hardiness zone. This is the standard measure of what will survive a winter outdoors. Computed from station observations using the USDA band definitions rather than taken from the USDA map, whose data is not published for reuse — it should agree in most places, but a county spanning a mountain range varies inside itself more than one number can show." }, "growingDays": { "value": 181, "label": "Growing season", "unit": "days", "source": "NOAA RCC-ACIS", "caveat": "Average number of days between the last spring frost and the first fall frost, over 2004-2024. This is the window most annual vegetables have to grow. Averaged across the weather stations in each county, so a county with real elevation change varies inside itself." }, "freezeDays": { "value": 63.7, "label": "Freezing days", "unit": "days", "source": "NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily", "caveat": "Number of days in the latest complete year when the county-average daily low reached 32°F or below. This describes cold frequency, not winter-storm risk." }, "pop": { "value": 7958180, "label": "Population", "unit": "int", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census ACS 1-yr 2024 (auto-updated)" }, "landArea": { "value": 66459, "label": "Land area", "unit": "int", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Land area from the Census Bureau's own boundary files, excluding water. A county that is half lake would otherwise read as far emptier than it is — which matters in Michigan, Minnesota and much of Alaska. Worth reading beside population rather than alone: San Bernardino County is larger than nine states, and Arlington County fits inside a small city." }, "density": { "value": 118, "label": "Population density", "unit": "num1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Population divided by land area. The single clearest measure of how a place feels day to day — more so than population, which tells you how many people share a boundary without saying how far apart they are. Ranges across four orders of magnitude, from under one person per square mile across the Alaskan interior and the Great Plains to tens of thousands in the dense boroughs." }, "groceryStores": { "value": 1583, "label": "Grocery stores", "unit": "int", "source": "Census County Business Patterns", "caveat": "Supermarkets and grocery stores — the places you do a weekly shop — counted as establishments, not chains: three branches of one chain count as three. A zero is a real finding rather than missing data: around 850 counties have no supermarket at all, and the count is only written where the Census reached the county under the broader retail code, which proves it was covered. Convenience stores are counted separately, as convenienceStores, because a county with a filling station and no supermarket is a different place from one with three supermarkets. This counts shops inside the county line, so somewhere with none may still be ten minutes from a large store across the border." }, "convenienceStores": { "value": 659, "label": "Convenience stores", "unit": "int", "source": "Census County Business Patterns", "caveat": "Convenience stores, counted separately from supermarkets. Read the two together: in a county with no supermarket these are where food is actually bought, and that usually means higher prices and less fresh food for the people living there. Establishments rather than chains, and inside the county line only." }, "foodFar": { "value": 21.1, "label": "Distance to food", "unit": "pct1", "source": "USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas (SRAM 2025)", "caveat": "Residents more than a mile by road from a SNAP-authorized food store in an urban area, or more than ten miles in a rural one. Driving distance along the road network rather than straight-line, because how far a shop is as the crow flies is not the question anyone has. Different from the store count beside it: a county can have several supermarkets clustered in one town and still leave most of its residents far from one. The thresholds are USDA’s own and are blunt by design — a mile is nothing with a car and a great deal without one, which is why vehicle access is measured separately in the source." }, "foodDesert": { "value": 9.5, "label": "Food deserts", "unit": "pct1", "source": "USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas (SRAM 2025)", "caveat": "Residents of tracts that are both low income and far from a food store — USDA’s definition of a food desert, which requires both conditions rather than distance alone. A wealthy county can be far from shops without qualifying, because a car makes distance manageable; the measure is about distance that people cannot easily overcome. Measured on 2020 tracts, so a neighbourhood that gained or lost a store since then is not reflected." }, "popGrowth": { "value": 3.8, "label": "Population change", "unit": "pctchg", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census Population Estimates, comparing the latest year against the April 2020 census base. The whole series is retabulated onto one set of boundaries each vintage, so the two ends of the comparison are always the same geography — which is why Connecticut's planning regions have a figure here. Growth counts arrivals, births and deaths together; net migration rate separates out the moving part." }, "natChg": { "value": 2.2, "label": "Births minus deaths", "unit": "rate1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Births minus deaths per 1,000 residents, before anyone moves. Negative means the population would shrink without arrivals — true across much of rural America and increasingly in retirement destinations. Migration alone hides this: a county can post healthy in-migration and still be losing people." }, "intlMig": { "value": 5.8, "label": "International arrivals", "unit": "rate1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Arrivals from outside the United States per 1,000 residents. Shown separately from domestic migration because the two often point opposite ways: most large coastal metros lose domestic movers while gaining internationally, and a single combined figure would hide both." }, "age": { "value": 38.7, "label": "Median age", "unit": "age", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "Half the population is older than this, half younger. Neither direction is better — a low median often means families and college towns, a high one means retirees and places young people have left. Read it alongside population trend." }, "under18": { "value": 21.4, "label": "Children", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "How much of the population is school age or younger. Read beside the share over 65: a county at the national median age can be families and retirees in equal measure, or neither, and the median alone cannot tell you which. This is the number that says whether a place feels like a family town." }, "over65": { "value": 16.6, "label": "Retirement age", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Residents at or past the usual retirement age. High figures mean retirement destinations and places young people have left, which look identical here and differ completely — read it against net migration and population change to tell them apart." }, "livingAlone": { "value": 27.7, "label": "Living alone", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Households of a single person, as a share of all households. High in cities and in places with many older residents, for opposite reasons. It is a household measure, not a population one — a place where a third of households are one person is not a place where a third of people live alone." }, "foreignBorn": { "value": 15.4, "label": "Born abroad", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Residents born outside the United States, including naturalised citizens. A plain count of where people were born, not of citizenship or of recent arrival — someone who arrived as a child fifty years ago is counted here." }, "otherLanguage": { "value": 21.5, "label": "Second languages", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Residents aged five and over who speak a language other than English at home. It says nothing about how well they speak English — most also speak it well, and the Census publishes that separately. Published as the English-only share; this is its complement." }, "religAdherent": { "value": 41.2, "label": "Religious adherence", "unit": "pct1", "source": "2020 US Religion Census (ASARB)", "caveat": "Adherents reported by the 372 religious bodies that took part in the 2020 US Religion Census, as a share of population. Adherents means members, their children and others who participate — broader than membership, narrower than belief. Read the gap carefully: those bodies account for 48.6% of the US population nationally, so the remainder are not counted as irreligious. They are people whose tradition did not take part, who attend somewhere that keeps no rolls, or who believe without belonging. A county at 35% has 35% on a participating body’s rolls and this says nothing at all about the other 65%. Some totals are estimated where a body could not supply county detail, and a few counties exceed 100% because bodies report where a congregation sits rather than where its members sleep; those are capped." }, "religCongregations": { "value": 80.2, "label": "Congregations", "unit": "rate1", "source": "2020 US Religion Census (ASARB)", "caveat": "Places of worship per 100,000 residents, from the same census of 372 participating bodies. Counts buildings and congregations rather than people, so a rural county of many small churches can rank far above a city with a few large ones. A count of congregations is not a measure of religiosity: it reflects how a tradition organises itself as much as how many people attend." }, "migRate": { "value": 1.2, "label": "Net migration rate", "unit": "rate1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census PEP. Counts people moving between US counties only, so it excludes international arrivals — a county can be growing overall while losing domestic movers, which is the pattern across most large coastal metros. A rate rather than a count, so counties of different sizes compare. Open a profile for the full year-by-year counts. Withheld for counties under 1,000 residents: a handful of events on a denominator that small produces a rate that is arithmetically correct and practically meaningless." }, "movedIn": { "value": 225935, "label": "Households in", "unit": "int", "source": "IRS Statistics of Income, county migration", "caveat": "Households that filed a tax return from this county having filed from somewhere else the year before. IRS counts filed returns, so it misses people who do not file and counts a household once rather than per person; it will not reconcile with the Census net migration figure (migNet), which counts people. Flows under 20 returns are suppressed for disclosure, so this understates movement in small counties." }, "movedOut": { "value": 217644, "label": "Households out", "unit": "int", "source": "IRS Statistics of Income, county migration", "caveat": "Households that filed from this county one year and from somewhere else the next. Same basis and same limits as households in." }, "agiIn": { "value": 86204, "label": "Income of arrivals", "unit": "usd", "source": "IRS Statistics of Income, county migration", "caveat": "Average adjusted gross income of the households that moved in, from their tax returns. Read it against the income of leavers: a county can grow while the people arriving earn less than the people going, which population change alone will not tell you. Adjusted gross income is not take-home pay and excludes untaxed income." }, "agiOut": { "value": 92005, "label": "Income of leavers", "unit": "usd", "source": "IRS Statistics of Income, county migration", "caveat": "Average adjusted gross income of the households that moved away. Neither direction is straightforwardly good: leavers earning more can mean people priced out or cashing out, and the figure says nothing about why they left." }, "permitRate": { "value": 10.6, "label": "New homes permitted", "unit": "rate1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey", "caveat": "Housing units authorised by building permits in a year, per 1,000 homes already standing. Permits are the first step in construction, so this leads the rest of the site: population change says where people went, this says where housing is being built for them. Per thousand rather than as a count, or the ranking would just repeat population. Counted as units rather than buildings — a forty-unit block is one building and forty homes. Neutral by design: heavy building means a growing market to some readers and a changing one to others." }, "permitUnits": { "value": 34913, "label": "Homes permitted", "unit": "int", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey", "caveat": "The raw count behind permitRate, for readers who want the absolute scale of building rather than its intensity. Covers privately-owned residential construction in permit-issuing places, which the Census puts at more than 99% of what gets built." }, "permitMulti": { "value": 49.1, "label": "Multifamily share", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey", "caveat": "How much of the new housing is flats and multi-unit buildings rather than detached houses. A useful read on what a place is becoming: a county permitting mostly single houses is spreading outward, one permitting mostly multifamily is densifying. Withheld below 25 units authorised, where a couple of duplexes would read as a construction boom in flats." }, "crime": { "value": 326.1, "label": "Crime rate", "unit": "rate", "source": "FBI UCR/CDE", "caveat": "Per 100,000 residents, FBI 2024" }, "commute": { "value": 27.2, "label": "Commute", "unit": "min", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "One-way, minutes, Census ACS (auto-updated)" }, "airportMi": { "value": 13.5, "label": "Airline distance", "unit": "mi", "source": "FAA Air Carrier Activity (ACAIS) enplanements; BTS NTAD Aviation Facilities", "caveat": "Straight-line miles from the county's population-weighted centre to the nearest airport the FAA classifies as commercial service, meaning it boards at least 2,500 passengers a year on scheduled flights. Driving distance is longer, and considerably longer where mountains or water intervene. The label names the FAA hub size, so a large hub and a single Essential Air Service route are not presented as the same thing. Airports without scheduled service are measured separately." }, "airportEnp": { "value": 5733697, "label": "Airport traffic", "unit": "num", "source": "FAA", "caveat": "Annual passenger boardings at the airport in the airportMi measure. Distance alone does not distinguish a field with two flights a day from a hub — this does. It describes the airport, not the county, so neighbouring counties served by the same airport share a figure." }, "gaAirportMi": { "value": 5.5, "label": "GA distance", "unit": "mi", "source": "FAA Air Carrier Activity (ACAIS) enplanements; BTS NTAD Aviation Facilities", "caveat": "Straight-line miles to the nearest public-use airport with no scheduled passenger service. Relevant if you fly yourself or charter; otherwise it mostly indicates how rural a county is. Private strips are excluded." }, "airportN": { "value": 13, "label": "Airline airports", "unit": "int", "source": "FAA Air Carrier Activity (ACAIS) enplanements; BTS NTAD Aviation Facilities", "caveat": "How many airports with scheduled passenger service sit inside this area. Most counties have none, which is normal and is why the distance measure matters more; at state level it shows how many separate places you can fly from. Counted from the FAA's commercial service list." }, "gaAirportN": { "value": 107, "label": "GA airfields", "unit": "int", "source": "BTS NTAD Aviation Facilities", "caveat": "How many public-use airports without scheduled passenger service sit inside this area. Private strips, heliports and seaplane bases are excluded." }, "railN": { "value": 19, "label": "Train stations", "unit": "int", "source": "BTS NTAD Amtrak Stations", "caveat": "How many Amtrak rail stations sit inside this area, shaded on the map, with the railway network drawn over it. Most counties have no station. Bus-only stops are excluded. The national view shows the passenger network; open a state for freight, yards and other track." }, "railMi": { "value": 10.6, "label": "Nearest station", "unit": "mi", "source": "Amtrak via ArcGIS", "caveat": "Straight-line distance from the county's population-weighted centre to the closest Amtrak station, so it measures from where people live rather than the county's geometric middle. A county with no station of its own can still sit twenty minutes from one." }, "baPlus": { "value": 41, "label": "Bachelor's or higher", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census ACS 5-year, table B15003. Measures the adults who live here, not the schools — a college town and a county that keeps its graduates read the same way." }, "hsPlus": { "value": 92.3, "label": "High school or higher", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Census ACS 5-year, table B15003, counting every level from a regular diploma upward." }, "schoolsN": { "value": 2393, "label": "Public schools", "unit": "num", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "NCES Common Core of Data 2024. Counted where each school actually is, not where its district office is. Virtual schools and schools reporting no students are excluded." }, "students": { "value": 1078105, "label": "Students", "unit": "num", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "NCES Common Core of Data 2024, summed from the schools inside the county." }, "ptRatio": { "value": 18.3, "label": "Students per teacher", "unit": "num1", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "Enrollment divided by full-time-equivalent teachers, summed across the county's schools. A staffing measure, not a quality ranking — no free authoritative source publishes school quality by county. Where a state did not report teacher counts in the latest year — Tennessee reported none for 2024 after reporting them for 96% of its schools through 2023 — the ratio is taken from that state's most recent year with data, using that year's enrollment too so the figure measures one year rather than mixing two. School and student counts stay current." }, "frpl": { "value": 48.1, "label": "Free lunch eligible", "unit": "pct1", "source": "NCES Common Core of Data", "caveat": "The standard proxy for poverty in a school district: eligibility is set against household income. Read as a description of the students a district serves rather than of the schools themselves. One caveat matters — districts increasingly use community eligibility, which feeds every child free and reports the whole school as eligible, so a high figure can mean a genuinely poor area or a district that opted into universal meals. Shown only where schools covering at least 60% of a county's enrolment reported it, because a share taken from partial reporting describes the reporting schools rather than the county." }, "schoolsElem": { "value": 1219, "label": "Elementary schools", "unit": "num", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "NCES's own definition: lowest grade 3 or below and highest grade 8 or below. Pre-kindergarten counts as below kindergarten, which matters because whether a state codes pre-K at all is a reporting convention — Texas does for thousands of schools and California for none." }, "schoolsMid": { "value": 379, "label": "Middle schools", "unit": "num", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "NCES's own definition: lowest grade 4 or above and highest grade 9 or below." }, "schoolsHigh": { "value": 527, "label": "High schools", "unit": "num", "source": "NCES via Urban Institute", "caveat": "NCES's own definition: lowest grade 7 or above and highest grade 12 or below. Schools spanning a wider range, K–12 most often, are counted separately rather than forced into a band." }, "collegeBA": { "value": 67, "label": "Colleges", "unit": "num", "source": "IPEDS via Urban Institute", "caveat": "IPEDS 2024, active institutions only. Labelled by what the source code means: some community colleges granting applied bachelor's degrees are included." }, "college2": { "value": 8, "label": "Two-year colleges", "unit": "num", "source": "IPEDS via Urban Institute", "caveat": "IPEDS 2024, active institutions only." }, "collegeMi": { "value": 5.6, "label": "Nearest college", "unit": "mi", "source": "IPEDS via Urban Institute", "caveat": "Straight-line distance from the county's population-weighted centre to the nearest campus, so it measures from where people live rather than the county's geometric middle." }, "teamsPro": { "value": 3, "label": "Pro teams", "unit": "int", "source": "League feeds; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "Clubs in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL combined. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsNFL": { "value": 1, "label": "NFL", "unit": "int", "source": "League feed; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "All 32 clubs, every one of them in a state. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsNBA": { "value": 0, "label": "NBA", "unit": "int", "source": "League feed; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "Toronto is in the NBA but not in any state, so 29 of the 30 clubs appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsMLB": { "value": 1, "label": "MLB", "unit": "int", "source": "League feed; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "Toronto is in MLB but not in any state, so 29 of the 30 clubs appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsNHL": { "value": 1, "label": "NHL", "unit": "int", "source": "League feed; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "Seven of the 32 clubs are Canadian, so 25 appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsMLS": { "value": 1, "label": "MLS", "unit": "int", "source": "League feed; venue city hand-checked", "caveat": "Major League Soccer, the top division of American soccer. Three of the 30 clubs are Canadian, so 27 appear. Several share a ground with an NFL or college club, so a county can hold both. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: lower soccer divisions are not counted." }, "teamsCFB": { "value": 2, "label": "College football", "unit": "int", "source": "Roster reconciled against per-state counts compiled separately", "caveat": "Football Bowl Subdivision programmes, the top tier of college football. Lower divisions are not counted, so a state can have plenty of college football and still read zero. Clubs are placed in the county their stadium is in, as every other league here is. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: minor league baseball, lower college divisions and other leagues are not counted." }, "teamsFCS": { "value": 1, "label": "College football (FCS)", "unit": "int", "source": "Conference membership from 2026 schedule releases, hand-checked", "caveat": "Football Championship Subdivision programmes, the second tier of college football, counted separately from the FBS tier. Twelve states have no FCS programme at all, so a zero here is often correct rather than missing. Clubs are placed in the county their stadium is in." }, "teamsMiLB": { "value": 4, "label": "Minor league baseball", "unit": "int", "source": "League club listing, 2026 season", "caveat": "Affiliated minor league baseball, the clubs tied to a major league organisation. Independent leagues are not counted. One Canadian club does not appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsAHL": { "value": 0, "label": "AHL hockey", "unit": "int", "source": "League arena list, 2025-26", "caveat": "The AHL is the top minor league in hockey, one tier below the NHL. Six of the 32 clubs are Canadian and do not appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "teamsECHL": { "value": 0, "label": "ECHL hockey", "unit": "int", "source": "League divisional announcement and arena list, 2025-26", "caveat": "The ECHL is professional hockey a tier below the AHL. One of the 30 clubs is Canadian and does not appear. Placed by the county its venue is in, not the one in its name, so a club often counts in a neighbouring county to the city it is named for. A zero means no club in the leagues listed here, not no sport: college divisions below the top tier, other leagues and independent baseball are not counted." }, "broadband": { "value": 95, "label": "Broadband", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "Share of households subscribing to a broadband internet service. This measures actual adoption rather than advertised availability, which tends to overstate real-world coverage. Low numbers can reflect cost as much as infrastructure." }, "noVehicle": { "value": 7.5, "label": "No vehicle", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "Share of households with no vehicle available. This is not a judgement about car ownership: it matters most alongside transit, walkability and distance to essentials." }, "wfh": { "value": 16.4, "label": "Remote work", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "Share of workers age 16+ whose usual commute is working from home. It describes how common remote work is locally, not whether a specific job can be done remotely." }, "hospitals": { "value": 100, "label": "Hospitals", "unit": "int", "source": "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services", "caveat": "Every hospital certified by Medicare with an address in the county, from the CMS provider file. Zero is a real answer and is shown as zero: most rural counties have none, and their residents drive to the next county. That is the honest limit of this measure — it counts what is inside the county line, and the CMS file publishes no coordinates, so a distance to the nearest hospital cannot be derived from it. A county with none may still be twenty minutes from one. Connecticut is placed by town rather than by county: CMS still files its hospitals under the counties abolished in 2022, so none of the planning regions match by name, but every hospital carries a town and the town-to-region map built for the map itself resolves them. Where a state cannot be placed either way it is left blank rather than written as zero, which would assert an absence of hospitals rather than of data." }, "hospitalsER": { "value": 90, "label": "Emergency rooms", "unit": "int", "source": "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services", "caveat": "How many of the county's hospitals run an emergency department, which for most people is the part that matters. A hospital without one is often a specialty or surgical facility, and cannot help at two in the morning." }, "hospitalRating": { "value": 3.2, "label": "Hospital rating", "unit": "rate1", "source": "Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services", "caveat": "CMS rates hospitals from one to five stars on mortality, safety, readmission, patient experience and timely care. This averages the rated hospitals in the county. Hospitals too small or too new to be rated are excluded rather than counted as zero, so a county's average can rest on a single hospital — read it beside the count." }, "uninsured": { "value": 6.3, "label": "Uninsured", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau ACS", "caveat": "Share of the civilian population with no health insurance coverage. A proxy for healthcare access: high uninsured rates often track with fewer local providers and longer travel to care." }, "mentalDistress": { "value": 16.4, "label": "Mental distress", "unit": "pct1", "source": "CDC PLACES", "caveat": "Adults reporting their mental health was not good for 14 or more days in the past 30 days. A modeled population estimate — community context, not a diagnosis or a rating of residents." }, "inactivity": { "value": 17.5, "label": "Physical inactivity", "unit": "pct1", "source": "CDC PLACES", "caveat": "Adults reporting no leisure-time physical activity in the past month. A modeled population estimate that reflects many local factors, including time, safety, access and health." }, "diabetes": { "value": 9.6, "label": "Diabetes", "unit": "pct1", "source": "CDC PLACES", "caveat": "Adults who report a diabetes diagnosis. This is a modeled population estimate, useful as health context rather than a measure of individual risk or care quality." }, "unemp": { "value": 5.2, "label": "Unemployment", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "caveat": "State: BLS LAUS monthly. County: Census ACS 5-yr average." }, "laborForce": { "value": 64.5, "label": "Labor force", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "The share of people 16 and over who are working or looking for work. Low figures mean a place is retired rather than unemployed — the two look identical in a jobless rate, which only counts people actively looking. Read alongside median age: a retirement county and a county where people have stopped looking both sit low here, and they are very different places." }, "selfEmp": { "value": 5.5, "label": "Self-employed", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Workers in their own unincorporated business, as a share of the civilian employed. High in farming and ranching counties, in resort towns built on trades and services, and in places with a strong freelance economy. Excludes people who incorporated, so it understates small business owners somewhat." }, "govWork": { "value": 16, "label": "Government jobs", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Federal, state and local government as a share of the civilian employed, including public school teachers and university staff. Steadies a local economy through downturns, and concentrates in state capitals, county seats, military towns and places built around a public university." }, "indTopShare": { "value": 21.7, "label": "Largest industry share", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "How much of local employment sits in whichever industry is biggest here. A county where one industry employs a third of workers rises and falls with that industry; one where the largest is a seventh is diversified. The industry itself is named on the county profile — this measures concentration rather than which industry it is." }, "gdpPerCapita": { "value": 109519, "label": "Economic output", "unit": "usd", "source": "Bureau of Economic Analysis", "caveat": "County GDP divided by population — the value of everything produced here in a year, per person living here. The dollar total on its own would only rank counties by size, with Los Angeles permanently on top; per resident it measures how intense the local economy is. One caveat has to travel with it: output is counted where work happens and population where people sleep, so a county full of offices that empties at night reads very high and the commuter suburb beside it reads low, without either being richer. This describes the local economy, not local incomes — median income (income) is the one that describes households. Shaded on a logarithmic scale: a handful of oil counties with a few hundred residents produce millions of dollars of output each, which is real rather than an error, and on a straight scale they flatten every other county to the palest shade." }, "poverty": { "value": 9.9, "label": "Poverty rate", "unit": "pct1", "source": "U.S. Census Bureau", "caveat": "Share below poverty level, Census ACS (auto-updated)" }, "flood": { "value": 91.4, "label": "Flood risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index score for flooding along rivers and streams, combining how often it happens with what it would cost. Separate from coastal flooding beside it, because inland and shoreline flooding threaten different places for different reasons. Flood is the most common and most expensive natural disaster in the United States, and standard homeowner policies do not cover it." }, "coastalFlood": { "value": 52.5, "label": "Coastal flood risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index score for flooding driven by storm surge and high tides. Zero for inland counties by definition, so it shades only where a coastline exists." }, "drought": { "value": 13.7, "label": "Drought risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index score for drought. Matters less for a building than for what surrounds it — water rates, well reliability, irrigation limits and, indirectly, the wildfire score beside it." }, "landslide": { "value": 91.5, "label": "Landslide risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index score for landslides. Concentrated in steep terrain, and often the hazard that decides whether a particular lot is buildable rather than whether a county is." }, "hail": { "value": 19.8, "label": "Hail risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index score for hail. Rarely life-threatening and routinely expensive: hail is a leading driver of roof claims, and of home insurance premiums across the plains." }, "quake": { "value": 95.9, "label": "Earthquake risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100. Reflects both ground-shaking likelihood and what is exposed to it, so a populated fault zone scores higher than empty land with the same geology." }, "tornado": { "value": 41.1, "label": "Tornado risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100. Highest through the central plains; near zero on the west coast and in Alaska." }, "hurricane": { "value": 0, "label": "Hurricane risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100. Covers hurricanes and tropical storms including remnants, so parts of New England read higher than their latitude suggests. Landlocked interior states read zero." }, "heat": { "value": 90.3, "label": "Heat risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100, for heat waves severe enough to cause harm rather than ordinary warm weather." }, "winter": { "value": 81, "label": "Winter weather risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100, covering severe winter storms — snow, ice and extreme cold." }, "wind": { "value": 26.9, "label": "Wind risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100, for damaging straight-line winds, separate from tornado and hurricane risk." }, "wildfire": { "value": 74.2, "label": "Wildfire risk", "unit": "score", "source": "FEMA", "caveat": "FEMA National Risk Index percentile, 0-100 — higher means greater wildfire risk. Reflects both how likely fire is and how much is exposed to it, so populated areas near wildland score higher. State figure is a population-weighted average of its counties." }, "roadFatal": { "value": 22, "label": "Road safety", "unit": "rate1d", "source": "NHTSA FARS", "caveat": "People killed in motor-vehicle crashes per 100,000 residents. Fatal crashes are counted where they occurred, so this reflects road conditions and travel exposure as well as resident risk. Withheld for counties under 1,000 residents: a handful of events on a denominator that small produces a rate that is arithmetically correct and practically meaningless." }, "roadFatalChg": { "value": -2.6, "label": "Road safety trend", "unit": "rate1d", "source": "NHTSA FARS", "caveat": "The change in the traffic-death rate against the previous reporting period. Negative means fewer deaths per head than before. Fatal crashes are rare in small counties, so a single crash can swing the rate hard — read this alongside the population, not on its own. Withheld for counties under 1,000 residents: a handful of events on a denominator that small produces a rate that is arithmetically correct and practically meaningless." } }, "series": { "pol": { "values": [ [ 2016, 54.4, 38.2 ], [ 2020, 58, 38.8 ], [ 2024, 57.6, 39.3 ] ], "label": "Presidential results by year", "shape": [ "year", "democratPct", "republicanPct" ], "source": "State election offices" }, "mig": { "values": [ [ 2021, -1009, -14999 ], [ 2022, 32214, -3314 ], [ 2023, 38195, -17511 ], [ 2024, 72889, 1728 ], [ 2025, 55440, 9238 ] ], "label": "Migration by year", "shape": [ "year", "householdsIn", "householdsOut" ], "source": "IRS Statistics of Income" }, "weatherHistory": { "values": [ [ 2021, 49.1, 62.8, 1.7, 12.5, 84.4 ], [ 2022, 48.5, 59.2, 2.1, 10.1, 94.4 ], [ 2023, 49.5, 48.9, 1, 7.6, 86.8 ], [ 2024, 49.3, 57.5, 1, 8.3, 59.9 ], [ 2025, 50, 56.5, 7.8, 7.6, 63.7 ] ], "label": "Weather by year", "shape": [ "year", "avgTempF", "precipIn", "snowIn", "days90F", "freezeDays" ], "source": "NOAA" }, "ind": { "values": [ 2.4, 7.1, 9, 2.2, 11.6, 5.9, 2.6, 5.4, 14.6, 21.7, 8.2, 4.3, 5.1 ], "label": "Employment by industry, percent", "shape": "13 industries, see /api/v1/metrics", "source": "Census ACS" }, "occ": { "values": [ 46.3, 15.3, 17.8, 9, 11.6 ], "label": "Employment by occupation, percent", "shape": "5 groups, see /api/v1/metrics", "source": "Census ACS" }, "builtEra": { "values": [ 2.3, 12.1, 15.1, 14.8, 12.4, 14.2, 8.7, 6.7, 4.2, 9.6 ], "label": "Housing by decade built, percent", "shape": "10 decades, oldest first", "source": "Census ACS" } }, "withheld": [ { "metric": "home", "label": "Home price", "reason": "Zillow's terms restrict redistribution of their data." }, { "metric": "col", "label": "Cost of living", "reason": "C2ER licenses the cost of living index commercially; MERIC republishes it." }, { "metric": "homeYoY", "label": "Price trend", "reason": "Zillow's terms restrict redistribution of their data." }, { "metric": "rent", "label": "Rent", "reason": "Zillow's terms restrict redistribution of their data." }, { "metric": "afford", "label": "Affordability", "reason": "Derived from Zillow, so it carries the same restriction." }, { "metric": "adjIncome", "label": "Adjusted income", "reason": "Derived from the C2ER index, so it carries the same restriction." }, { "metric": "insurance", "label": "Home insurance", "reason": "Insurance.com's own compilation rather than a public record." }, { "metric": "healthcare", "label": "Healthcare", "reason": "KFF publishes under CC BY-NC-ND, which permits neither commercial use nor derivatives." }, { "metric": "childcare", "label": "Childcare", "reason": "EPI and Child Care Aware's own compilation." }, { "metric": "gas", "label": "Gas price", "reason": "AAA's own price survey rather than a public record." }, { "metric": "docs", "label": "Doctors", "reason": "County Health Rankings licenses its data for non-profit use only." }, { "metric": "pm25", "label": "Air quality", "reason": "County Health Rankings licenses its data for non-profit use only." } ], "meta": { "attribution": "MoverMath — https://movermath.com", "licence": "https://movermath.com/api/v1/licence", "methodology": "https://movermath.com/methodology" } }