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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-COLUMBUS-GA · Columbus, GA 204,383 pop · income 30th pct · 59 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 Columbus
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Columbus on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Macon-Bibb Co… · lowest
50,747
Macon-Bibb Co… · lowest
50,747 median HH income
42.2% of the leader · rank #1
Fulton · near
56,620
Fulton · near
56,620 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #2
Larksville · near
56,620
Larksville · near
56,620 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #3
Columbus · this city
56,622
Columbus · this city
56,622 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #4
Iron Mountain · near
56,622
Iron Mountain · near
56,622 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #5
East Lake-Ori… · near
56,623
East Lake-Ori… · near
56,623 median HH income
47.1% of the leader · rank #6
McKinney · highest
120,273
McKinney · highest
120,273 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 Columbus 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: 204,383.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Columbus - the verdict
Columbus ranks in the 30th percentile for household income and the 18th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
18th
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: Columbus, GA
Columbus is a mid-sized U.S. city in Georgia, home to 204,383 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $56,622 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.0%. Columbus's housing stock carries a median value of $182,300, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. Educational attainment runs 29.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 52.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 291 residential building permits were authorized in Columbus (Construction Slowdown), down 57% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Columbus's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2839.4 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 63.8°F with 51.8 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Georgia run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Georgia at 96.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,203 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Georgia's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.5 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Columbus'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 work and mobility to reported crime to population change to climate and hazard context to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Columbus, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Columbus?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.6%. 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. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Columbus?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2839.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 25% higher 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.
PlainCities matches 59 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Columbus?
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.
Within Georgia, the closest population matches are Augusta-Richmond County (201,504 residents, $53,134 income); Macon-Bibb County (156,543 residents, $50,747 income); Savannah (147,546 residents, $56,782 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Salt Lake City, UT (203,888 residents); Worcester, MA (205,501 residents); Little Rock, AR (202,739 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.
Population change
Is Columbus growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4,845 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 291 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
207,016
2025 estimate
202,171
Period change
-2.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 63.8°F, with 51.8 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Georgia is 39.5 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)
39.5
Annual precipitation
51.8 in
Mean temperature
63.8°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Columbus?
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 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.2×
Home value
$182,300
Household income
$56,622
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 49 public schools within the city match. 29.7% 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.
Poverty estimate
15.0%
Bachelor's degree+
29.7%
Matched public schools
49
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 15.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
F
City profile score · Columbus, GA
34/100
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 C
29.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Household income F
$56,622
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
604 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Columbus profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.7%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,622
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 15.0%
Violent crime: 10/100 (F) · 604 /100k
Where Columbus sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Columbus'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 - Columbus highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Columbus, GA (this city): home $182,300, crime 2,839/100k
Salt Lake City, UT : home $495,700, crime 6,064/100k
Worcester, MA : home $339,500, crime 17/100k
Little Rock, AR : home $221,200, crime 6,886/100k
McKinney, TX : home $439,500, crime 933/100k
Oxnard, CA : home $617,800, crime 2,474/100k
Savannah, GA : home $225,200, crime 20/100k
Athens-Clarke County, GA : home $271,800, crime 2,683/100k
South Fulton, GA : home $270,600, crime 2,378/100k
Sandy Springs, GA : home $583,900, crime 1,600/100k
How does Columbus compare to other US cities?
Here's how Columbus stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety18% 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 Georgia, Columbus ranks #121 of 166 Georgia 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 Columbus 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 Columbus near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Columbus ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Columbus only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#289 of 610
53rd percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#260 of 577
55th percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#263 of 637
59th percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#143 of 638
78th 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 18th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Columbus's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Columbus'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 Columbus's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$182,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Columbus's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,783 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#18 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 3.2×, Columbus sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,783 of 15,516 and #18 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$56,622Columbus, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Columbus, 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 Columbus, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
204,383
Median Income
$56,622
Median Home Value
$182,300
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
15.0%
Labor force participation
52.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2839.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
603.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2235.6
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
63.8°F
Annual Precipitation
51.8"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
49
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Columbus's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
207,016 residents
2021
205,164 residents
2022
202,697 residents
2023
202,073 residents
2024
202,072 residents
2025
202,171 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
291
housing units authorized
Single-Family
261
detached homes
Multifamily
30
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
681
293
388
$109.5M
2020
1,342
901
441
$155.1M
2021
675
296
379
$118.5M
2022
1,054
210
844
$223.3M
2023
266
216
50
$68.3M
2024
291
261
30
$86.4M
Permit volume decreased 57% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.6%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
9.4%
Other
2.3%
Based on 88,331 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 Columbus. 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 Columbus 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 Columbus sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Columbus 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, 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.