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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-ASPEN-CO · Aspen, CO 6,862 pop · income 60th 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 Aspen
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Aspen on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mexia · lowest
36,589
Mexia · lowest
36,589 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #1
West Van Lear · near
78,625
West Van Lear · near
78,625 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #2
Prince Freder… · near
78,625
Prince Freder… · near
78,625 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #3
Aspen · this city
78,636
Aspen · this city
78,636 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #4
Cartersville · near
78,640
Cartersville · near
78,640 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #5
Chubbuck · near
78,646
Chubbuck · near
78,646 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #6
Medina · highest
219,181
Medina · highest
219,181 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 Aspen 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: 6,862.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Aspen - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Aspen lands in the 60th percentile for household income and the 14th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
60th
percentile, household income
99th
percentile, home value
68th
percentile, median rent
14th
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: Aspen, CO
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 6,862 residents in Aspen, a small town within Colorado. Aspen households earn a median of $78,636 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Aspen are valued around $1,375,000, and the median resident age is 41.7 years. 68.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 26 residential building permits were authorized in Aspen (Rapid Growth), up 37% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Aspen's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3143.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 40.6°F with 24.4 inches of precipitation per year and 170.8 inches of snowfall.
Colorado carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Colorado scores 103.1 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,429 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Colorado run around $202, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 40.7 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Aspen'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 schools and households to population change to climate and hazard context to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Aspen, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Aspen?
Within Colorado, the closest population matches are Gunnison (6,712 residents, $55,313 income); Air Force Academy (6,701 residents, $93,889 income); Orchard Mesa (6,597 residents, $76,173 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chesterland, OH (6,862 residents); Holly Springs, MS (6,861 residents); Centerville, SC (6,860 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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 68.3% 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.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -490 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -7.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 26 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 40.6°F, with 24.4 inches of precipitation and 170.8 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Colorado is 40.7 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.
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Aspen?
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 3143.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 38% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3005.1
Violent rate
138.7
Total reported rate
3143.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Aspen?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 17.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, 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.
Household income
$78,636
Home value
$1,375,000
Value / income
17.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 38.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
9.1%
Work from home
17.1%
Drive alone
38.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 4,281 workers age 16+.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
C+
City profile score · Aspen, CO
62/100
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+
68.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C+
139 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C
$78,636
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living F
103.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Aspen profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 97/100 (A+) · 68.3%
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Violent crime: 61/100 (C+) · 139 /100k
Household income: 58/100 (C) · $78,636
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
Where Aspen sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Aspen'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 - Aspen highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Aspen, CO (this city): home $1,375,000, crime 3,144/100k
Medina, MN : home $660,800, crime 662/100k
Mexia, TX : home $92,900, crime 1,490/100k
Gunnison, CO : home $432,200, crime 4,161/100k
Carbondale, CO : home $796,100, crime 751/100k
La Junta, CO : home $180,700, crime 7,505/100k
Dacono, CO : home $448,200, crime 973/100k
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 Aspen compare to other US cities?
Here's how Aspen stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income60% higher than other cities
Home value99% pricier than other cities
Median rent68% pricier than other cities
Safety14% 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 Colorado, Aspen ranks #89 of 116 Colorado 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 Aspen against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Colorado only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Colorado-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Aspen near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Aspen ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Aspen only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#196 of 379
48th percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Median Home Value
#7 of 388
98th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#231 of 408
43rd percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#48 of 408
88th percentile in Colorado
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 Colorado only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
60th percentile nationally for median household income · 14th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Aspen's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Aspen'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 Aspen's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,375,0001st percentilemore affordable than 1% 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
Aspen's home-value-to-income ratio: 17.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,503 of 15,516
More affordable than 0% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,312 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 17.5×, Aspen sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,503 of 15,516 and #11,312 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$78,636Aspen, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Aspen, CO median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Aspen, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)68.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,862
Median Income
$78,636
Median Home Value
$1,375,000
Median Age
41.7
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
69.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
68.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3143.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
138.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3005.1
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
40.6°F
Annual Precipitation
24.4"
Annual Snowfall
170.8"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Aspen's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,979 residents
2021
6,936 residents
2022
6,730 residents
2023
6,639 residents
2024
6,598 residents
2025
6,489 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
26
housing units authorized
Single-Family
14
detached homes
Multifamily
12
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
19
7
12
$34.8M
2020
20
8
12
$39.1M
2021
26
10
16
$49.3M
2022
12
10
2
$69.6M
2023
16
14
2
$66.6M
2024
26
14
12
$118.8M
Permit volume increased 37% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
38.9%
Carpool
2.2%
Public Transit
9.1%
Walk
14.4%
Work from Home
17.1%
Other
18.3%
Based on 4,281 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Colorado statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $202
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Colorado at $202 (electricity about $90 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Colorado statewide averages, not a meter reading for Aspen. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Colorado's BEA cost-of-living index is 103.1 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Aspen is $1,429/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Colorado statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 40.7 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Colorado statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Aspen sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Aspen compares to similar-size Colorado 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.