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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-FORT-CARSON-CO · Fort Carson, CO 18,447 pop · income 38th 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 Fort Carson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Carson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Zephyrhills · lowest
49,295
Zephyrhills · lowest
49,295 median HH income
34.2% of the leader · rank #1
South Greensb… · near
61,782
South Greensb… · near
61,782 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #2
Fort Carson · this city
61,783
Fort Carson · this city
61,783 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #3
Moyie Springs · near
61,783
Moyie Springs · near
61,783 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #4
Elkader · near
61,786
Elkader · near
61,786 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #5
Shevlin · near
61,786
Shevlin · near
61,786 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #6
Newburyport · highest
144,259
Newburyport · highest
144,259 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 Fort Carson 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: 18,447.
Fort Carson ranks in the 38th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
38th
percentile, household income
68th
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: Fort Carson, CO
18,447 people live in Fort Carson, Colorado - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Fort Carson households earn a median of $61,783 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.0%. The median resident age is 22.1 years. About 27.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 15.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 4 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $202 across Colorado, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Fort Carson'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Carson, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Carson?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 53.7%. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Fort Carson?
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. 27.2% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Carson?
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 Colorado, the closest population matches are Cimarron Hills (18,808 residents, $75,853 income); Johnstown (18,075 residents, $130,851 income); Durango (19,257 residents, $79,545 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Newburyport, MA (18,444 residents); Newton, KS (18,443 residents); Centralia, WA (18,457 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.
Below median income · poverty 11.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
F
City profile score · Fort Carson, CO
37/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$61,783
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.0%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Carson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.2%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,783
Poverty rate: 36/100 (F) · 11.0%
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
How does Fort Carson compare to other US cities?
Here's how Fort Carson stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Median rent68% 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 Fort Carson 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 Fort Carson near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Carson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Carson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#261 of 379
31st percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#94 of 408
77th percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#237 of 408
42nd 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$61,783Fort Carson, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Carson, 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 Fort Carson, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)15.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
18,447
Median Income
$61,783
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
22.1
Poverty Rate
11.0%
Labor force participation
15.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.2%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
53.7%
Carpool
18.1%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
25.4%
Work from Home
1.8%
Other
0.9%
Based on 11,736 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 Fort Carson. 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 Fort Carson 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 Fort Carson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Carson 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, 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.