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Place dossier plate
SheetAZ-CHINLE-AZ · Chinle, AZ 4,395 pop · income 14th pct · 18 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 Chinle
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chinle on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
South Tucson · lowest
33,734
South Tucson · lowest
33,734 median HH income
13.5% of the leader · rank #1
Chinle · this city
46,458
Chinle · this city
46,458 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #2
Mendota · near
46,458
Mendota · near
46,458 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #3
Tishomingo · near
46,458
Tishomingo · near
46,458 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #4
Broughton · near
46,458
Broughton · near
46,458 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #5
Davenport · near
46,458
Davenport · near
46,458 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #6
Emerald Lake… · highest
250,001
Emerald Lake… · highest
250,001 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Chinle on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 4,395.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Chinle places in the 14th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
0th
percentile, home value
64th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Chinle, AZ
Arizona's Chinle is a small town, with 4,395 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Chinle report a median income of $46,458 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 35.1%. Home values in Chinle run a median of $38,000, and the median resident age is 31.9 years. Educational attainment runs 23.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 39.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 6 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Arizona tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Arizona scores 100.7 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,419 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Arizona run around $215, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 84.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Chinle'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 housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chinle, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Chinle?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 0.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 35.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
PlainCities matches 18 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Chinle?
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.
Within Arizona, the closest population matches are Eagar (4,410 residents, $81,667 income); Summit (4,410 residents, $43,484 income); Dewey-Humboldt (4,428 residents, $64,183 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Brooktrails, CA (4,394 residents); Emerald Lake Hills, CA (4,396 residents); North Terre Haute, IN (4,396 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.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 23.0% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Chinle?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
85.8%
Work from home
4.6%
Public transit
1.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,275 workers age 16+.
Low income · poverty 35.1% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.7 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Arizona average
F
City profile score · Chinle, AZ
22/100
4 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 D
23.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living F
100.7 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$46,458
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
35.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Chinle profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 43/100 (D) · 23.0%
Cost of living: 37/100 (F) · 100.7 index
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $46,458
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 35.1%
How does Chinle compare to other US cities?
Here's how Chinle stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value0% pricier than other cities
Median rent64% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chinle against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Arizona only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Arizona-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Chinle near the bottom of Arizona's cities
Among the 394 Arizona cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chinle ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chinle only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#236 of 333
29th percentile in Arizona
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 394
0th percentile in Arizona
Median Home Value
#314 of 327
4th percentile in Arizona
Poverty Rate
#58 of 393
85th percentile in Arizona
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#123 of 394
69th percentile in Arizona
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 Arizona only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Chinle's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$38,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 100% 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
Chinle's home-value-to-income ratio: 0.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#17 of 15,516
More affordable than 100% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#17 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 0.8×, Chinle sits in the affordable band:
national rank #17 of 15,516 and #17 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$46,458Chinle, AZ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chinle, AZ median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Chinle, AZ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)35.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)39.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,395
Median Income
$46,458
Median Home Value
$38,000
Median Age
31.9
Poverty Rate
35.1%
Labor force participation
39.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.0%
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.8%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
8.5%
Work from Home
4.6%
Based on 1,275 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Arizona statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Arizona at $215 (electricity about $131 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Arizona statewide averages, not a meter reading for Chinle. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Arizona's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.7 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Chinle is $1,419/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Arizona statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 84.5 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Arizona statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Chinle sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chinle compares to similar-size Arizona 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, NCES CCD, 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.