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Place dossier plate
SheetAZ-SELLS-AZ · Sells, AZ 2,200 pop · income 4th 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 Sells
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sells on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cibecue · lowest
21,629
Cibecue · lowest
21,629 median HH income
15.2% of the leader · rank #1
Quincy · near
34,126
Quincy · near
34,126 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #2
Sells · this city
34,138
Sells · this city
34,138 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #3
St. Pierre · near
34,141
St. Pierre · near
34,141 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #4
Chocowinity · near
34,141
Chocowinity · near
34,141 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #5
Wisner · near
34,145
Wisner · near
34,145 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #6
Geneva · highest
142,612
Geneva · highest
142,612 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 Sells 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: 2,200.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Sells lands in the 4th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
4th
percentile, household income
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: Sells, AZ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,200 residents in Sells, a small town within Arizona. The typical household in Sells brings in $34,138 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 49.7%. The median resident age is 24.8 years. 5.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 33.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 4 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,419 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $215 across Arizona, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 84.5 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sells'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 work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sells, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Sells?
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 Blackwater (2,245 residents); Kearny (2,245 residents, $49,688 income); Rio Verde (2,271 residents, $141,020 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oak Grove, MS (2,200 residents); Geneva, WA (2,200 residents); Burnt Store Marina, FL (2,201 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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 61.5%. 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. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
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 4 public schools within the city match. 5.8% 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.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 49.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.7 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Arizona average
F
City profile score · Sells, AZ
9/100
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.
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
$34,138
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
49.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Sells profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 37/100 (F) · 100.7 index
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $34,138
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 49.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.8%
How does Sells compare to other US cities?
Where Sells sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income4% higher 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 Sells 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 Sells near the bottom of Arizona's cities
Among the 394 Arizona cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sells ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sells only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#295 of 333
11th percentile in Arizona
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 394
0th percentile in Arizona
Poverty Rate
#21 of 393
95th percentile in Arizona
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#304 of 394
22nd 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
4th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$34,138Sells, AZ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sells, 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 Sells, AZ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)49.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)33.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,200
Median Income
$34,138
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
24.8
Poverty Rate
49.7%
Labor force participation
33.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.8%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
61.5%
Carpool
15.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
9.8%
Work from Home
7.1%
Other
5.7%
Based on 522 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 Sells. 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 Sells 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 Sells sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sells 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.