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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-ERIE-CO · Erie, CO 31,927 pop · income 96th 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 Erie
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Erie on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pullman · lowest
45,097
Pullman · lowest
45,097 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #1
El Dorado Hil… · near
163,544
El Dorado Hil… · near
163,544 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Edna · near
163,608
Edna · near
163,608 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Erie · this city
163,644
Erie · this city
163,644 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Oakton · near
163,662
Oakton · near
163,662 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Reading · near
163,725
Reading · near
163,725 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Annetta North · highest
163,750
Annetta North · highest
163,750 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 Erie 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: 31,927.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Erie - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Erie places in the 96th percentile for household income and the 67th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
96th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
68th
percentile, median rent
67th
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: Erie, CO
Colorado's Erie is a small city, with 31,927 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Erie report a median income of $163,644 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.4%. Typical homes in Erie are valued around $685,900, and the median resident age is 37.6 years. 66.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 73.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 893 residential building permits were authorized in Erie (Building Boom), up 56% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Erie reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 925.7 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). 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. Commute times here average 18.8 minutes, with 60.7% driving alone and 29.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 40.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Erie'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Erie, 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 Erie?
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 60.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.8 minutes.
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 925.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 59% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Erie?
Within Colorado, the closest population matches are Wheat Ridge (32,158 residents, $87,598 income); Lafayette (30,471 residents, $110,431 income); Ken Caryl (33,407 residents, $116,838 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Milford Mill, MD (31,939 residents); Pullman, WA (31,939 residents); Opelika, AL (31,944 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.
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 +10,482 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +34.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 893 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Erie?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.4%, 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
$163,644
Home value
$685,900
Value / income
4.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 66.5% 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
9
Bachelor's degree+
66.5%
Poverty estimate
2.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
B+
City profile score · Erie, CO
79/100
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.
Household income A+
$163,644
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
66.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime A
30 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A-
2.4%
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.
Erie profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $163,644
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 66.5%
Violent crime: 89/100 (A) · 30 /100k
Poverty rate: 83/100 (A-) · 2.4%
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
Where Erie sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Erie'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 - Erie highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Erie, CO (this city): home $685,900, crime 926/100k
Pullman, WA : home $401,700, crime 952/100k
Opelika, AL : home $213,700, crime 3,185/100k
Beverly Hills, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 4,951/100k
Duluth, GA : home $366,000, crime 1,363/100k
Wheat Ridge, CO : home $584,700, crime 4,947/100k
Lafayette, CO : home $647,600, crime 2,953/100k
Englewood, CO : home $534,000, crime 5,908/100k
Fountain, CO : home $374,600, crime 2,375/100k
How does Erie compare to other US cities?
Where Erie sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income96% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier than other cities
Median rent68% pricier than other cities
Safety67% 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, Erie ranks #32 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 Erie 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 Erie near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Erie ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Erie only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#30 of 379
92nd percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Median Home Value
#82 of 388
79th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#261 of 408
36th percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#53 of 408
87th 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
96th percentile nationally for median household income · 67th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Erie's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Erie'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 Erie's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$685,9008th percentilemore affordable than 8% 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
Erie's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,214 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,133 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.2×, Erie sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,214 of 15,516 and #2,133 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$163,644Erie, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Erie, 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 Erie, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)66.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
31,927
Median Income
$163,644
Median Home Value
$685,900
Median Age
37.6
Poverty Rate
2.4%
Labor force participation
73.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
66.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
925.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
29.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
896.0
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Erie's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
30,422 residents
2021
31,565 residents
2022
33,171 residents
2023
35,366 residents
2024
38,674 residents
2025
40,904 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
893
housing units authorized
Single-Family
883
detached homes
Multifamily
10
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
28
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
572
572
0
$169.6M
2020
510
479
31
$143.9M
2021
1,082
652
430
$222.7M
2022
907
619
288
$211.0M
2023
772
679
93
$264.2M
2024
893
883
10
$399.6M
Permit volume increased 56% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.8 minutes
Drive Alone
60.7%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
29.8%
Other
1.1%
Based on 16,912 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 Erie. 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 Erie 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 Erie sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Erie 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, 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.