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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-CORTEZ-CO · Cortez, CO 8,898 pop · income 22nd pct · 8 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 Cortez
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cortez on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Oxford · lowest
48,135
Oxford · lowest
48,135 median HH income
27.6% of the leader · rank #1
So-Hi · near
51,371
So-Hi · near
51,371 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #2
Lineville · near
51,375
Lineville · near
51,375 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #3
Rogersville · near
51,375
Rogersville · near
51,375 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #4
Cortez · this city
51,377
Cortez · this city
51,377 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #5
Ranchos de Ta… · near
51,380
Ranchos de Ta… · near
51,380 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #6
Woodmoor · highest
174,138
Woodmoor · highest
174,138 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 Cortez 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: 8,898.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cortez - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cortez lands in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
50th
percentile, home value
68th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Cortez, CO
8,898 people live in Cortez, Colorado - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $51,377 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.5%. Home values in Cortez run a median of $226,700, and the median resident age is 38.9 years. Educational attainment runs 29.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 16 residential building permits were authorized in Cortez (Slowing), down 6% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Cortez's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3399.1 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 47.9°F with 18.6 inches of precipitation per year.
Colorado carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Colorado at 103.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,429 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $202 across Colorado, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 40.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cortez'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 climate and hazard context to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to reported crime to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cortez, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Cortez?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 47.9°F, with 18.6 inches of precipitation. 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Cortez?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.5%. 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 Cortez?
Within Colorado, the closest population matches are Woodmoor (8,819 residents, $174,138 income); Craig (9,022 residents, $69,256 income); Redlands (8,771 residents, $97,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Caldwell, NJ (8,898 residents); Greenville, MI (8,897 residents); Oxford, NC (8,897 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.
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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Cortez?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.5%, 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
$51,377
Home value
$226,700
Value / income
4.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cortez?
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 3399.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2938.6
Violent rate
460.5
Total reported rate
3399.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +346 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 16 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+3.9%
2025 estimate
9,126
2020 estimate
8,780
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 29.2% 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
9
Bachelor's degree+
29.2%
Poverty estimate
7.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
F
City profile score · Cortez, CO
33/100
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 C
29.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Household income F
$51,377
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
461 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cortez profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.2%
Poverty rate: 50/100 (C-) · 7.5%
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,377
Violent crime: 18/100 (F) · 461 /100k
Where Cortez sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cortez'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 - Cortez highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Cortez, CO (this city): home $226,700, crime 3,399/100k
Caldwell, NJ : home $563,000, crime 390/100k
Greenville, MI : home $160,600, crime 2,929/100k
Oxford, NC : home $177,200, crime 4,429/100k
Poteau, OK : home $142,400, crime 3,231/100k
Craig, CO : home $252,900, crime 2,055/100k
Milliken, CO : home $398,200, crime 538/100k
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 Cortez compare to other US cities?
Cortez measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value50% pricier than other cities
Median rent68% pricier than other cities
Safety12% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Colorado and the picture shifts: Cortez ranks #93 of 116 Colorado cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cortez 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 Cortez near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cortez ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cortez only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#310 of 379
18th percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Median Home Value
#295 of 388
24th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#144 of 408
64th percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#226 of 408
45th 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cortez's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cortez'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 Cortez's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$226,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 50% 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
Cortez's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,799 of 15,516
More affordable than 24% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,062 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, Cortez sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,799 of 15,516 and #9,062 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$51,377Cortez, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cortez, 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 Cortez, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,898
Median Income
$51,377
Median Home Value
$226,700
Median Age
38.9
Poverty Rate
7.5%
Labor force participation
53.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3399.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
460.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2938.6
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
47.9°F
Annual Precipitation
18.6"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cortez's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,780 residents
2021
8,921 residents
2022
9,002 residents
2023
9,048 residents
2024
9,105 residents
2025
9,126 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
16
housing units authorized
Single-Family
16
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
17
17
0
$3.8M
2020
20
20
0
$4.5M
2021
14
14
0
$3.7M
2022
19
19
0
$4.8M
2023
16
16
0
$4.1M
2024
16
16
0
$4.0M
Permit volume decreased 6% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.5%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
6.8%
Other
3.3%
Based on 3,853 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 Cortez. 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 Cortez 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 Cortez sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cortez 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.