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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-BUCHANAN-GA · Buchanan, GA 1,324 pop · income 18th 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 Buchanan
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Buchanan on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Edison · lowest
27,440
Edison · lowest
27,440 median HH income
20.8% of the leader · rank #1
Buchanan · this city
49,271
Buchanan · this city
49,271 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #2
Homer · near
49,271
Homer · near
49,271 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #3
Swansea · near
49,271
Swansea · near
49,271 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #4
Lawtell · near
49,274
Lawtell · near
49,274 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #5
Coquille · near
49,276
Coquille · near
49,276 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #6
Clermont · highest
132,188
Clermont · highest
132,188 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 Buchanan 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: 1,324.
Buchanan ranks in the 18th percentile for household income and the 99th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
18th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
99th
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: Buchanan, GA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,324 residents in Buchanan, a small town within Georgia. The typical household in Buchanan brings in $49,271 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.7%. Typical homes in Buchanan are valued around $173,400, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. 6.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 30 residential building permits were authorized in Buchanan (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Buchanan reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 0.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Georgia run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Georgia scores 96.3 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,203 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Georgia run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 39.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Buchanan'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 schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to comparison shortlist 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 Buchanan, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, 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.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Buchanan?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 6.7% 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 does the journey to work look like in Buchanan?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.9%. 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. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Buchanan?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 0.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 100% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Buchanan?
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 Georgia, the closest population matches are Flemington (1,324 residents, $95,114 income); Edison (1,330 residents, $27,440 income); Greenville (1,330 residents, $48,295 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Labadieville, LA (1,324 residents); Dawson, TX (1,324 residents); Hillsboro, WI (1,324 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.
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 Buchanan?
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 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.5×
Home value
$173,400
Household income
$49,271
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Buchanan growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +95 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 30 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 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.
2020 estimate
933
2025 estimate
1,028
Period change
+10.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
D
City profile score · Buchanan, GA
40/100
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living C
96.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
15.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$49,271
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
6.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Buchanan profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.7%
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $49,271
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 6.7%
How does Buchanan compare to other US cities?
Buchanan measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income18% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety99% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Georgia and the picture shifts: Buchanan ranks #1 of 166 Georgia cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Buchanan against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Georgia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Georgia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Buchanan near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Buchanan ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Buchanan only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#355 of 610
42nd percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#276 of 577
52nd percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#250 of 637
60th percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#558 of 638
12th percentile in Georgia
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 Georgia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
18th percentile nationally for median household income · 99th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Buchanan's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Buchanan'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 Buchanan's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$173,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Buchanan's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,040 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,286 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Buchanan sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,040 of 15,516 and #7,286 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$49,271Buchanan, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Buchanan, GA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Buchanan, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)6.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,324
Median Income
$49,271
Median Home Value
$173,400
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
15.7%
Labor force participation
49.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
6.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
0.0
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.
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Buchanan's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
933 residents
2021
940 residents
2022
976 residents
2023
949 residents
2024
948 residents
2025
1,028 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
30
housing units authorized
Single-Family
30
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
22.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
1
1
0
$0.2M
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
8
8
0
$2.3M
2024
30
30
0
$8.6M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.9%
Carpool
3.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
6.8%
Other
2.6%
Based on 532 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Georgia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Georgia at $225 (electricity about $125 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Georgia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Buchanan. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Georgia's BEA cost-of-living index is 96.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Buchanan is $1,203/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Georgia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.5 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Georgia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Buchanan sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Buchanan compares to similar-size Georgia 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, 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.