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Place dossier plate
SheetFL-BARTOW-FL · Bartow, FL 19,801 pop · income 46th 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 Bartow
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bartow on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Harvey · lowest
41,091
Harvey · lowest
41,091 median HH income
30.2% of the leader · rank #1
East Hartford · near
66,943
East Hartford · near
66,943 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #2
Bartow · this city
66,944
Bartow · this city
66,944 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #3
South Van Horn · near
66,944
South Van Horn · near
66,944 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #4
Nappanee · near
66,944
Nappanee · near
66,944 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #5
Boyd · near
66,944
Boyd · near
66,944 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #6
Albany · highest
135,927
Albany · highest
135,927 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 Bartow 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: 19,801.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bartow - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Bartow lands in the 46th percentile for household income and the 26th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
46th
percentile, home value
73rd
percentile, median rent
26th
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: Bartow, FL
Florida's Bartow is a small town, with 19,801 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Bartow report a median income of $66,944 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.4%. Bartow's housing stock carries a median value of $210,400, and the median resident age is 36.1 years. 22.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 60.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 609 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 1503% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2281.8 in FBI UCR data, near 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 73.1°F with 50.9 inches of precipitation per year.
Florida carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Florida at 103.4 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,526 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Florida's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 75.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bartow'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 reported crime to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bartow, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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
What physical conditions frame life in Bartow?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 73.1°F, with 50.9 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Florida is 75.7 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Bartow?
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 2281.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 0% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Bartow?
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 79.9%. 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 Bartow?
Within Florida, the closest population matches are Palm Valley (19,775 residents, $118,280 income); Tavares (19,738 residents, $57,644 income); Punta Gorda (19,886 residents, $79,291 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Brigham City, UT (19,796 residents); Oregon, OH (19,821 residents); Lackawanna, NY (19,779 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Bartow?
The NCES join finds 16 public schools within the city match. 22.3% 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
16
Bachelor's degree+
22.3%
Poverty estimate
10.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Bartow?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.4%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$66,944
Home value
$210,400
Value / income
3.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 +3,928 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +20.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 609 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
+20.0%
2025 estimate
23,617
2020 estimate
19,689
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 10.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Florida average
F
City profile score · Bartow, FL
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.
Household income D
$66,944
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
103.4 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
492 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bartow profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $66,944
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.3%
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.4%
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
Violent crime: 16/100 (F) · 492 /100k
Where Bartow sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bartow'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 - Bartow highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Bartow, FL (this city): home $210,400, crime 2,282/100k
Oregon, OH : home $191,300, crime 4,399/100k
Lackawanna, NY : home $126,500, crime 1,956/100k
Harvey, IL : home $86,100, crime 2,218/100k
Albany, CA : home $1,188,600, crime 2,631/100k
Broadview Heights, OH : home $292,500, crime 107/100k
Tavares, FL : home $225,500, crime 308/100k
Sweetwater, FL : home $251,000, crime 2,171/100k
Lynn Haven, FL : home $286,700, crime 785/100k
How does Bartow compare to other US cities?
Here's how Bartow stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value46% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% pricier than other cities
Safety26% 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 Florida, Bartow ranks #75 of 120 Florida 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 Bartow against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Florida only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Florida-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bartow near the bottom of Florida's cities
Among the 930 Florida cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bartow ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bartow only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#480 of 903
47th percentile in Florida
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 930
0th percentile in Florida
Median Home Value
#671 of 894
25th percentile in Florida
Poverty Rate
#350 of 930
62nd percentile in Florida
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#559 of 930
40th percentile in Florida
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 Florida only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 26th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bartow's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bartow'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 Bartow's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$210,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 54% 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
Bartow's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,403 of 15,516
More affordable than 52% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,099 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.1×, Bartow sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,403 of 15,516 and #1,099 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
$66,944Bartow, FL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bartow, FL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bartow, FL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
19,801
Median Income
$66,944
Median Home Value
$210,400
Median Age
36.1
Poverty Rate
10.4%
Labor force participation
60.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2281.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
491.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1790.1
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
73.1°F
Annual Precipitation
50.9"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
16
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bartow's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
19,689 residents
2021
19,911 residents
2022
20,160 residents
2023
20,931 residents
2024
22,205 residents
2025
23,617 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
609
housing units authorized
Single-Family
511
detached homes
Multifamily
98
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
30.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
38
38
0
$6.6M
2020
58
56
2
$10.7M
2021
64
60
4
$16.9M
2022
274
263
11
$80.0M
2023
569
313
256
$143.8M
2024
609
511
98
$209.3M
Permit volume increased 1503% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.9%
Carpool
8.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
7.6%
Other
2.2%
Based on 9,557 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Florida statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Florida at $225 (electricity about $145 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Florida statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bartow. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Florida's BEA cost-of-living index is 103.4 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bartow is $1,526/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Florida statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.7 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Florida statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bartow sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bartow compares to similar-size Florida 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.