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Place dossier plate
SheetCO-WHEAT-RIDGE-CO · Wheat Ridge, CO 32,158 pop · income 69th 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 Wheat Ridge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wheat Ridge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Massillon · lowest
55,308
Massillon · lowest
55,308 median HH income
33.8% of the leader · rank #1
San Gabriel · near
87,592
San Gabriel · near
87,592 median HH income
53.5% of the leader · rank #2
Wheat Ridge · this city
87,598
Wheat Ridge · this city
87,598 median HH income
53.5% of the leader · rank #3
Northwest Har… · near
87,601
Northwest Har… · near
87,601 median HH income
53.5% of the leader · rank #4
Lompico · near
87,604
Lompico · near
87,604 median HH income
53.5% of the leader · rank #5
Lochmoor Wate… · near
87,606
Lochmoor Wate… · near
87,606 median HH income
53.5% of the leader · rank #6
Erie · highest
163,644
Erie · highest
163,644 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 Wheat Ridge 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: 32,158.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wheat Ridge - the verdict
Wheat Ridge ranks in the 69th percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
69th
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, home value
68th
percentile, median rent
4th
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: Wheat Ridge, CO
Colorado's Wheat Ridge is a small city, with 32,158 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Wheat Ridge households earn a median of $87,598 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.7%. Typical homes in Wheat Ridge are valued around $584,700, and the median resident age is 42.1 years. About 44.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 66.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 163 residential building permits were authorized in Wheat Ridge (Building Boom), up 226% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Wheat Ridge's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4947.0 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Wheat Ridge's yearly average temperature at 50.3°F with 17.1 inches of precipitation per year and 75.5 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. 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 Wheat Ridge'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wheat Ridge, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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
How far does income reach against housing in Wheat Ridge?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.7%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wheat Ridge?
Within Colorado, the closest population matches are Erie (31,927 residents, $163,644 income); Ken Caryl (33,407 residents, $116,838 income); Englewood (33,774 residents, $82,016 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are O'Fallon, IL (32,139 residents); Massillon, OH (32,177 residents); Elk Grove Village, IL (32,132 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.
Is Wheat Ridge growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -299 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 163 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wheat Ridge?
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 4947.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 117% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Wheat Ridge?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.3°F, with 17.1 inches of precipitation and 75.5 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.
Mean temperature
50.3°F
Annual precipitation
17.1 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
40.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Wheat Ridge?
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 65.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
2.6%
Work from home
19.3%
Drive alone
65.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 17,799 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Wheat Ridge?
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 44.4% 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
8
Bachelor's degree+
44.4%
Poverty estimate
5.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 5.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Colorado average
D
City profile score · Wheat Ridge, CO
49/100
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 B+
44.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$87,598
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.7%
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 F
481 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Wheat Ridge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 44.4%
Household income: 67/100 (B-) · $87,598
Poverty rate: 61/100 (C+) · 5.7%
Cost of living: 26/100 (F) · 103.1 index
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 481 /100k
Where Wheat Ridge sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wheat Ridge'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 - Wheat Ridge highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Wheat Ridge, CO (this city): home $584,700, crime 4,947/100k
O'Fallon, IL : home $274,100, crime 1,215/100k
Massillon, OH : home $138,800, crime 2,134/100k
Elk Grove Village, IL : home $334,400, crime 1,815/100k
Long Branch, NJ : home $519,000, crime 1,869/100k
Hutto, TX : home $315,800, crime 1,092/100k
Maryville, TN : home $310,600, crime 638/100k
Erie, CO : home $685,900, crime 926/100k
Englewood, CO : home $534,000, crime 5,908/100k
Lafayette, CO : home $647,600, crime 2,953/100k
Fountain, CO : home $374,600, crime 2,375/100k
How does Wheat Ridge compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wheat Ridge stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income69% higher than other cities
Home value88% pricier than other cities
Median rent68% pricier than other cities
Safety4% 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: Wheat Ridge ranks #105 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 Wheat Ridge 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 Wheat Ridge near the bottom of Colorado's cities
Among the 408 Colorado cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wheat Ridge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wheat Ridge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#162 of 379
57th percentile in Colorado
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 408
0th percentile in Colorado
Median Home Value
#115 of 388
70th percentile in Colorado
Poverty Rate
#179 of 408
56th percentile in Colorado
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#150 of 408
63rd 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
69th percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wheat Ridge's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wheat Ridge'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 Wheat Ridge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$584,70012th percentilemore affordable than 12% 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
Wheat Ridge's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,514 of 15,516
More affordable than 6% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,068 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.7×, Wheat Ridge sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,514 of 15,516 and #3,068 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$87,598Wheat Ridge, CO median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wheat Ridge, 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 Wheat Ridge, CO.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)44.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
32,158
Median Income
$87,598
Median Home Value
$584,700
Median Age
42.1
Poverty Rate
5.7%
Labor force participation
66.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
44.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4947.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
480.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4466.2
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
50.3°F
Annual Precipitation
17.1"
Annual Snowfall
75.5"
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wheat Ridge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
32,380 residents
2021
32,337 residents
2022
31,893 residents
2023
31,887 residents
2024
32,086 residents
2025
32,081 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
163
housing units authorized
Single-Family
82
detached homes
Multifamily
81
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
50
42
8
$12.8M
2020
411
147
264
$80.8M
2021
439
157
282
$86.0M
2022
430
128
302
$82.2M
2023
104
60
44
$24.0M
2024
163
82
81
$35.4M
Permit volume increased 226% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.0%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
2.6%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
19.3%
Other
2.7%
Based on 17,799 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 Wheat Ridge. 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 Wheat Ridge 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 Wheat Ridge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wheat Ridge 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.