City safety & data profile

AthensOH

Athens, OH is a 25K-resident city in Athens County with a median household income of $38,204.

Athens County, Ohio. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Athens, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Athens has a population larger than 56% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $247,000, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

25K
Population (place)
Top 44%
By size
$38,204
Median income (place)
$247,000
Median home (place)
40%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Athens

Athens posts a median household income higher than 1% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Athens area.

Bottom 2%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Athens

Where Athens income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$38,204 Bottom 1% higher than 1% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Athens $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in OH

Population among 185 OH places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Columbus is the largest OH city on this list; Powell leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in OH

Median household income among the same 185-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Powell posts the highest place-level median income in OH; Columbus is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Athens, OH beyond the headline numbers

Athens sits inside Athens County, Ohio, at roughly 39.33°N, -82.10°W. Population 25,044, $38,204 median household income. Median home value $247,000, median rent $1,011. Poverty rate 40%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Athens, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

40% of Athens, OH residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Athens costs around 6.5 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

20.2% of Athens workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 27.9% in Athens, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Athens's median age is 21.6 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Athens from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
25,044
Athens · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$38,204
-57% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$247,000
-40% vs avg
Median Age (place)
21.6
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Athens County): Athens's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
62K-5%
Median Income
$56,001+66%
Median Home Value
$185,000+60%
Poverty Rate
21.5%-32%
Unemployment
6.5%-48%

Economics

Economics indicators for Athens, OH
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,011/mo
Poverty Rate
40% +223% vs avg
Unemployment 8.2%
Bachelor's Degree+ 64.1%
Work From Home 20.2%
Public Transit 1.6%

Population

White 83.7%
African American 3.8%
Asian 3.4%
Two or More Ethnicities 4.9%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
41.1%
Obesity
34.7%
Frequent Mental Distress
27.9%
Physical Inactivity
27%
High Blood Pressure
24.7%
Binge Drinking
21%
Current Smoking
15%
Current Asthma
12.9%
Frequent Physical Distress
12.7%
Lack of Health Insurance
10.4%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 47.4%
Annual Checkup 72.6%

Other Measures

Diabetes
6.7%
Coronary Heart Disease
3.4%
Stroke
1.8%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
0
0
Average Rating
3/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
1
OHIOHEALTH O'BLENESS HOSPITAL
ATHENS · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Athens?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Athens right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet OH-ATHENS-OH · Athens

Athens: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Athens; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Ohio state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Athens, OH?
Athens, OH has a population of 25,044 people, located in Athens County, Ohio.
What is the median household income in Athens?
The median household income in Athens, OH is $38,204 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 40%.
What is the median home value in Athens?
The median home value in Athens, OH is $247,000. Median rent is $1,011/month.
What are the top health concerns in Athens?
The top health indicators in Athens include Short Sleep Duration (41.1%), Obesity (34.7%), Frequent Mental Distress (27.9%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Athens?
Athens has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 3/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Athens?
The median age in Athens, OH is 21.6 years. 64.1% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Athens, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside OH (40% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside OH ($38,204 here).

Compare Athens with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Athens's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Athens area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Athens against Ohio peers on any ranking lens. Explore Ohio

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Athens County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.