Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cottonwood 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: 122.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cottonwood - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cottonwood lands in the 49th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
1st
percentile, home value
64th
percentile, median rent
49th
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: Cottonwood, AZ
Cottonwood is a small town in Arizona, home to 122 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Home values in Cottonwood run a median of $57,000, and the median resident age is 63.4 years. 29.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 41.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Cottonwood reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1391.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Arizona tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Arizona at 100.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,419 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arizona's average monthly utility costs around $215 (state average). 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 Cottonwood'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cottonwood, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Cottonwood?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 88.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cottonwood?
Within Arizona, the closest population matches are Ali Chuk (123 residents); Mead Ranch (121 residents); Top-of-the-World (125 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Libertyville, AL (122 residents); Magness, AR (122 residents); La Junta Gardens, CO (122 residents). These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cottonwood?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1391.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 39% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for Cottonwood?
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 29.6% 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.
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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Arizona average
C+
City profile score · Cottonwood, AZ
60/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime D
223 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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 N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Cottonwood profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.6%
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 223 /100k
Cost of living: 37/100 (F) · 100.7 index
Where Cottonwood sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cottonwood'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 - Cottonwood highlighted among 21 peers.Read the chart values
Cottonwood, AZ (this city): home $57,000, crime 1,391/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
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
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Cottonwood compare to other US cities?
Where Cottonwood sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Home value1% pricier than other cities
Median rent64% pricier than other cities
Safety49% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Arizona alone, Cottonwood ranks #22 of 61 Arizona cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood near the bottom of Arizona's cities
Among the 394 Arizona cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cottonwood ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cottonwood only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 394
0th percentile in Arizona
Median Home Value
#293 of 327
10th percentile in Arizona
Poverty Rate
#310 of 393
0th percentile in Arizona
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#86 of 394
78th 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
49th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Cottonwood's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$57,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 99% 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
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Cottonwood in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)41.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
122
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
$57,000
Median Age
63.4
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
41.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1391.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
223.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1168.1
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.
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
88.6%
Carpool
11.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 44 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 Cottonwood. 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 Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cottonwood 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, FBI UCR, 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.