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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-HIGHLANDS-RANCH-CO · Highlands Ranch, CO 101,437 pop · income 95th pct · 72 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 Highlands Ranch
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Highlands Ranch on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pueblo · lowest
55,305
Pueblo · lowest
55,305 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #1
Islip Terrace · near
155,741
Islip Terrace · near
155,741 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #2
Turnerville · near
155,793
Turnerville · near
155,793 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
River Edge · near
155,827
River Edge · near
155,827 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Highlands Ran… · this city
155,847
Highlands Ran… · this city
155,847 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Celina · near
155,875
Celina · near
155,875 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #6
North Merrick · highest
156,023
North Merrick · highest
156,023 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 Highlands Ranch 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: 101,437.
Nationally, Highlands Ranch sits in the 95th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
95th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
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: Highlands Ranch, CO
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 101,437 residents in Highlands Ranch, a mid-sized U.S. city within Colorado. Highlands Ranch households earn a median of $155,847 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.4%. Highlands Ranch's housing stock carries a median value of $672,600, and the median resident age is 41.4 years. About 66.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 68.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 26 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Colorado's average monthly utility costs around $202 (state average). The average commute for Highlands Ranch workers runs 17.6 minutes, with 63.7% driving alone and 29.5% working from home. 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 Highlands Ranch'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 within-city variation to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Highlands Ranch, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 72 Census tracts reveal inside Highlands Ranch?
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.
PlainCities matches 72 Census tracts to this city.
How far does income reach against housing in Highlands Ranch?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.4%, 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.
What does the education layer cover for Highlands Ranch?
The NCES join finds 26 public schools within the city match. 66.8% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Highlands Ranch?
Within Colorado, the closest population matches are Longmont (98,958 residents, $89,724 income); Boulder (106,274 residents, $85,364 income); Centennial (107,386 residents, $128,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bend, OR (101,472 residents); Quincy, MA (101,361 residents); Davenport, IA (101,083 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Highlands Ranch?
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 63.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.6 minutes.
Public transit
1.2%
Work from home
29.5%
Drive alone
63.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 54,788 workers age 16+.
Top-decile income · poverty 1.4% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
B+
City profile score · Highlands Ranch, CO
78/100
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.
Household income A+
$155,847
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
66.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A+
1.4%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Highlands Ranch profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 98/100 (A+) · $155,847
Bachelor's+ share: 96/100 (A+) · 66.8%
Poverty rate: 90/100 (A+) · 1.4%
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
How does Highlands Ranch compare to other US cities?
Where Highlands Ranch sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income95% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier 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 Highlands Ranch 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 Highlands Ranch near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Highlands Ranch ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Highlands Ranch only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#36 of 379
91st percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Median Home Value
#85 of 388
78th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#283 of 408
30th percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#52 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
95th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Highlands Ranch's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$672,6008th 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
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,569 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#362 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.3×, Highlands Ranch sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,569 of 15,516 and #362 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$155,847Highlands Ranch, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Highlands Ranch, 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 Highlands Ranch, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)66.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
101,437
Median Income
$155,847
Median Home Value
$672,600
Median Age
41.4
Poverty Rate
1.4%
Labor force participation
68.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
66.8%
Schools
Total Schools
26
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.6 minutes
Drive Alone
63.7%
Carpool
3.6%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
29.5%
Other
1.2%
Based on 54,788 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 Highlands Ranch. 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 Highlands Ranch 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 Highlands Ranch sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Highlands Ranch 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.