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Place dossier plate
SheetFL-PENSACOLA-FL · Pensacola, FL 54,011 pop · income 53rd pct · 79 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 Pensacola
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pensacola on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Rocky Mount · lowest
52,927
Rocky Mount · lowest
52,927 median HH income
55.3% of the leader · rank #1
Deerfield · near
72,692
Deerfield · near
72,692 median HH income
76.0% of the leader · rank #2
St. Clair Sho… · near
72,693
St. Clair Sho… · near
72,693 median HH income
76.0% of the leader · rank #3
Pensacola · this city
72,699
Pensacola · this city
72,699 median HH income
76.0% of the leader · rank #4
Chapman · near
72,699
Chapman · near
72,699 median HH income
76.0% of the leader · rank #5
Kendrick · near
72,708
Kendrick · near
72,708 median HH income
76.0% of the leader · rank #6
Apopka · highest
95,703
Apopka · highest
95,703 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 Pensacola 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: 54,011.
Pensacola ranks in the 53rd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
53rd
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
73rd
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: Pensacola, FL
54,011 people live in Pensacola, Florida - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Pensacola brings in $72,699 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.4%. Typical homes in Pensacola are valued around $276,500, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. Educational attainment runs 42.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 93 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), up 4% from five years earlier. NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 68.6°F with 67.8 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,526 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Florida's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.7 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Pensacola'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households to within-city variation to housing and income to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pensacola, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Pensacola?
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 Florida, the closest population matches are Pinellas Park (53,423 residents, $62,043 income); Bonita Springs (54,830 residents, $90,486 income); Westchester (53,082 residents, $75,905 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Manhattan, KS (53,951 residents); Logan, UT (53,923 residents); Kentwood, MI (54,114 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Pensacola?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.9%. 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. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Pensacola?
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 58 public schools within the city match. 42.7% 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.
What can 79 Census tracts reveal inside Pensacola?
PlainCities matches 79 Census tracts to this city.
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.
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 Pensacola?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.8×
Home value
$276,500
Household income
$72,699
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 68.6°F, with 67.8 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
75.7
Annual precipitation
67.8 in
Mean temperature
68.6°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Is Pensacola growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -749 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 93 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
2020 estimate
54,566
2025 estimate
53,817
Period change
-1.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 8.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Florida average
D
City profile score · Pensacola, FL
48/100
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 B+
42.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$72,699
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.4%
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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Pensacola profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.7%
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,699
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.4%
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
How does Pensacola compare to other US cities?
Where Pensacola sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% 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 Pensacola 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 Pensacola near the bottom of Florida's cities
Among the 930 Florida cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pensacola ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pensacola only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#394 of 903
56th percentile in Florida
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 930
0th percentile in Florida
Median Home Value
#498 of 894
44th percentile in Florida
Poverty Rate
#436 of 930
53rd percentile in Florida
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#208 of 930
77th 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
53rd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Pensacola's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$276,50039th percentilemore affordable than 39% 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
Pensacola's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,068 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#281 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.8×, Pensacola sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,068 of 15,516 and #281 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
$72,699Pensacola, FL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pensacola, 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 Pensacola, FL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
54,011
Median Income
$72,699
Median Home Value
$276,500
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
8.4%
Labor force participation
58.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.7%
Climate
Avg Temperature
68.6°F
Annual Precipitation
67.8"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
58
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pensacola's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
54,566 residents
2021
54,090 residents
2022
54,133 residents
2023
54,010 residents
2024
53,835 residents
2025
53,817 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
93
housing units authorized
Single-Family
93
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
89
85
4
$19.7M
2020
92
92
0
$27.3M
2021
215
36
179
$36.5M
2022
43
43
0
$10.4M
2023
40
40
0
$15.3M
2024
93
93
0
$24.2M
Permit volume increased 4% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.9%
Carpool
7.1%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
15.2%
Other
2.6%
Based on 26,039 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 Pensacola. 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 Pensacola 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 Pensacola sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pensacola 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, 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.