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.
Place dossier plate
SheetAZ-SCOTTSDALE-AZ · Scottsdale, AZ 242,169 pop · income 82nd pct
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 Scottsdale
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Scottsdale on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Winston-Salem · lowest
57,673
Winston-Salem · lowest
57,673 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #1
Wheaton · near
107,349
Wheaton · near
107,349 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #2
West Elmira · near
107,359
West Elmira · near
107,359 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #3
Scottsdale · this city
107,372
Scottsdale · this city
107,372 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #4
Olympia Heigh… · near
107,381
Olympia Heigh… · near
107,381 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #5
Carson · near
107,391
Carson · near
107,391 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #6
Arlington · highest
140,160
Arlington · highest
140,160 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 Scottsdale 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: 242,169.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Scottsdale - the verdict
Scottsdale ranks in the 82nd percentile for household income and the 31st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
82nd
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
64th
percentile, median rent
31st
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: Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale is a mid-sized U.S. city in Arizona, home to 242,169 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $107,372 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.7%. Home values in Scottsdale run a median of $709,900, and the median resident age is 49.2 years. About 61.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1,320 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Growing), up 5% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2027.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Arizona tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 100.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,419 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arizona's average monthly utility costs around $215 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 84.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Scottsdale'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 housing and income to population change 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 Scottsdale, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for 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 Scottsdale?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.1%. 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 Scottsdale?
Within Arizona, the closest population matches are Glendale (250,193 residents, $70,139 income); Gilbert (271,118 residents, $121,351 income); Chandler (278,123 residents, $103,691 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Garland, TX (245,298 residents); Boise City, ID (235,701 residents); Arlington, VA (235,463 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Scottsdale?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Is Scottsdale growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,151 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,320 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Scottsdale?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 61.5% 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.
Matched public schools
7
Bachelor's degree+
61.5%
Poverty estimate
4.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Scottsdale?
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 2027.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 11% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1875.3
Violent rate
152.5
Total reported rate
2027.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Arizona average
B-
City profile score · Scottsdale, AZ
66/100
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+
61.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$107,372
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
153 /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.
Scottsdale profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 93/100 (A+) · 61.5%
Household income: 80/100 (A-) · $107,372
Poverty rate: 67/100 (B-) · 4.7%
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 153 /100k
Cost of living: 37/100 (F) · 100.7 index
Where Scottsdale sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Scottsdale'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 - Scottsdale highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Scottsdale, AZ (this city): home $709,900, crime 2,028/100k
Garland, TX : home $248,900, crime 2,221/100k
Norfolk, VA : home $271,900, crime 4,242/100k
Winston-Salem, NC : home $208,200, crime 3,731/100k
Chesapeake, VA : home $359,100, crime 2,084/100k
Glendale, AZ : home $347,000, crime 3,159/100k
Gilbert, AZ : home $518,600, crime 1,100/100k
Chandler, AZ : home $469,800, crime 1,638/100k
Peoria, AZ : home $429,400, crime 1,460/100k
Tempe, AZ : home $421,900, crime 3,364/100k
Surprise, AZ : home $396,000, crime 985/100k
How does Scottsdale compare to other US cities?
Scottsdale measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income82% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent64% pricier than other cities
Safety31% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Arizona, Scottsdale ranks #41 of 61 Arizona cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Scottsdale 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 Scottsdale near the bottom of Arizona's cities
Among the 394 Arizona cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Scottsdale ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Scottsdale only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#26 of 333
92nd percentile in Arizona
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 394
0th percentile in Arizona
Median Home Value
#7 of 327
98th percentile in Arizona
Poverty Rate
#259 of 393
34th percentile in Arizona
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#11 of 394
97th 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
82nd percentile nationally for median household income · 31st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Scottsdale's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Scottsdale'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 Scottsdale's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$709,9007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Scottsdale's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,483 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#99 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 6.6×, Scottsdale sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,483 of 15,516 and #99 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
$107,372Scottsdale, AZ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Scottsdale, 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 Scottsdale, AZ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)61.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
242,169
Median Income
$107,372
Median Home Value
$709,900
Median Age
49.2
Poverty Rate
4.7%
Labor force participation
59.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
61.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2027.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
152.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1875.3
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
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Scottsdale's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
241,855 residents
2021
242,639 residents
2022
242,499 residents
2023
244,138 residents
2024
244,686 residents
2025
243,006 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
1,320
housing units authorized
Single-Family
403
detached homes
Multifamily
917
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,259
590
669
$394.5M
2020
3,086
482
2,604
$686.6M
2021
1,700
553
1,147
$388.5M
2022
799
624
175
$225.3M
2023
1,067
408
659
$225.5M
2024
1,320
403
917
$482.6M
Permit volume increased 5% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
62.1%
Carpool
4.5%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
29.0%
Other
2.3%
Based on 124,022 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 Scottsdale. 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 Scottsdale 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 Scottsdale sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Scottsdale 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 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.