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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-AUSTIN-TX · Austin, TX 967,862 pop · income 72nd pct · 290 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Austin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Austin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
El Paso · lowest
58,734
El Paso · lowest
58,734 median HH income
41.5% of the leader · rank #1
Alba · near
91,458
Alba · near
91,458 median HH income
64.6% of the leader · rank #2
Zumbro Falls · near
91,458
Zumbro Falls · near
91,458 median HH income
64.6% of the leader · rank #3
Marion · near
91,458
Marion · near
91,458 median HH income
64.6% of the leader · rank #4
Austin · this city
91,461
Austin · this city
91,461 median HH income
64.6% of the leader · rank #5
Rossville · near
91,469
Rossville · near
91,469 median HH income
64.6% of the leader · rank #6
San Jose · highest
141,565
San Jose · highest
141,565 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Austin on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 967,862.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Austin - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Austin lands in the 72nd percentile for household income and the 9th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
72nd
percentile, household income
85th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
9th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Austin, TX
967,862 people live in Austin, Texas - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $91,461 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.1%. Austin's housing stock carries a median value of $512,700, and the median resident age is 34.5 years. 58.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 71.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 9,444 residential building permits were authorized in Austin (Construction Slowdown), down 36% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Austin's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3708.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Austin's yearly average temperature at 67.4°F with 33.0 inches of precipitation per year.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Texas scores 97.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 17.4 minutes, with 58.8% driving alone and 27.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.0 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Austin's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to housing and income to within-city variation to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Austin, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Austin?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Fort Worth (941,311 residents, $76,602 income); El Paso (678,147 residents, $58,734 income); Dallas (1,299,553 residents, $67,760 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jacksonville, FL (961,739 residents); San Jose, CA (990,054 residents); Columbus, OH (906,480 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +40,469 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9,444 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What does the journey to work look like in Austin?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 58.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.4 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
PlainCities matches 290 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Austin?
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 67.4°F, with 33.0 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Texas is 49.0 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.0
Annual precipitation
33.0 in
Mean temperature
67.4°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Austin?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.6×
Home value
$512,700
Household income
$91,461
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 262 public schools within the city match. 58.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
8.1%
Bachelor's degree+
58.2%
Matched public schools
262
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Austin?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3708.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 63% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
3708.8
Violent rate
466.9
Property rate
3241.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 8.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
C
City profile score · Austin, TX
55/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B
$91,461
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living C-
97.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate D
8.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
467 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Austin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.2%
Household income: 71/100 (B) · $91,461
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 47/100 (D) · 8.1%
Violent crime: 18/100 (F) · 467 /100k
Where Austin sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Austin's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Austin highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Austin, TX (this city): home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
Arlington, TX : home $276,400, crime 2,896/100k
Corpus Christi, TX : home $197,100, crime 3,875/100k
How does Austin compare to other US cities?
Where Austin sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income72% higher than other cities
Home value85% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety9% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Texas and the picture shifts: Austin ranks #592 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Austin against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Texas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Texas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Austin near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Austin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Austin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#319 of 1,520
79th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#75 of 1,505
95th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#876 of 1,663
47th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#83 of 1,663
95th percentile in Texas
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Texas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
72nd percentile nationally for median household income · 9th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Austin's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Austin's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Austin's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$512,70015th percentilemore affordable than 15% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Austin's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,711 of 15,516
More affordable than 12% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#84 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 5.6×, Austin sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,711 of 15,516 and #84 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$91,461Austin, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Austin, TX median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Austin, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)71.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
967,862
Median Income
$91,461
Median Home Value
$512,700
Median Age
34.5
Poverty Rate
8.1%
Labor force participation
71.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3708.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
466.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3241.9
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
67.4°F
Annual Precipitation
33.0"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
262
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Austin's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
962,163 residents
2021
966,501 residents
2022
978,358 residents
2023
990,110 residents
2024
998,607 residents
2025
1,002,632 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
9,444
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1,946
detached homes
Multifamily
7,498
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
9.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14,709
4,568
10,141
$2157.9M
2020
17,690
4,113
13,577
$2290.4M
2021
18,722
4,180
14,542
$3117.9M
2022
18,446
3,344
15,102
$3197.5M
2023
13,684
1,799
11,885
$1744.9M
2024
9,444
1,946
7,498
$1513.2M
Permit volume decreased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.4 minutes
Drive Alone
58.8%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
27.5%
Other
2.3%
Based on 568,845 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Texas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $223
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Texas at $223 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Texas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Austin. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Texas's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Austin is $1,149/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Texas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Texas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Austin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Austin compares to similar-size Texas cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.