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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-ELLIJAY-GA · Ellijay, GA 1,931 pop · income 16th pct · 8 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 Ellijay
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ellijay on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Butler · lowest
24,924
Butler · lowest
24,924 median HH income
24.6% of the leader · rank #1
Du Quoin · near
47,632
Du Quoin · near
47,632 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #2
Norway · near
47,632
Norway · near
47,632 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #3
Ellijay · this city
47,639
Ellijay · this city
47,639 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #4
Mount Calm · near
47,639
Mount Calm · near
47,639 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #5
Dexter · near
47,647
Dexter · near
47,647 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #6
Isle of Hope · highest
101,316
Isle of Hope · highest
101,316 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 Ellijay 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: 1,931.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ellijay - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Ellijay lands in the 16th percentile for household income and the 47th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
47th
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: Ellijay, GA
1,931 people live in Ellijay, Georgia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Ellijay report a median income of $47,639 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.7%. Typical homes in Ellijay are valued around $277,600, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. Educational attainment runs 18.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 47.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 14 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 75% from five years earlier. Ellijay reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1466.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). The average commute for Ellijay workers runs 26.8 minutes, with 62.0% driving alone and 5.3% working from home. 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 Ellijay'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 population change to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ellijay, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Ellijay growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +169 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 14 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Ellijay?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ellijay?
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 Comer (1,928 residents, $45,284 income); Isle of Hope (1,945 residents, $101,316 income); Oxford (1,945 residents, $58,594 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Scenic, AZ (1,931 residents); Hart, MI (1,931 residents); Lake Isabella, MI (1,931 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Ellijay?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 18.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
13.7%
Bachelor's degree+
18.4%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ellijay?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1466.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 36% 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.
Total reported rate
1466.1
Violent rate
151.7
Property rate
1314.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Ellijay?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.8 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
62.0%
Work from home
5.3%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 682 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
F
City profile score · Ellijay, GA
37/100
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 C
152 /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.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$47,639
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Ellijay profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 152 /100k
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 30/100 (F) · 18.4%
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.7%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,639
Where Ellijay sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ellijay'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 - Ellijay highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Ellijay, GA (this city): home $277,600, crime 1,466/100k
Hart, MI : home $119,700, crime 4,234/100k
Cave City, AR : home $119,900, crime 1,091/100k
Dover, AR : home $106,700, crime 1,252/100k
Oxford, GA : home $190,600, crime 437/100k
Hamilton, GA : home $262,100, crime 224/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Ellijay compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ellijay stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety47% 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: Ellijay ranks #68 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 Ellijay 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 Ellijay near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ellijay ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ellijay only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#376 of 610
38th percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#109 of 577
81st percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#279 of 637
56th percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#298 of 638
53rd 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 47th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ellijay's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ellijay'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 Ellijay's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$277,60039th 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
Ellijay's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,946 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,370 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.8×, Ellijay sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,946 of 15,516 and #10,370 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$47,639Ellijay, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ellijay, 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 Ellijay, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,931
Median Income
$47,639
Median Home Value
$277,600
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
13.7%
Labor force participation
47.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1466.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
151.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1314.5
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ellijay's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,839 residents
2021
1,941 residents
2022
1,935 residents
2023
1,967 residents
2024
1,975 residents
2025
2,008 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
14
housing units authorized
Single-Family
14
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$1.6M
2020
9
9
0
$1.8M
2021
15
15
0
$3.3M
2022
17
17
0
$4.1M
2023
6
6
0
$1.7M
2024
14
14
0
$4.2M
Permit volume increased 75% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.8 minutes
Drive Alone
62.0%
Carpool
32.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
5.3%
Based on 682 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 Ellijay. 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 Ellijay 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 Ellijay sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ellijay 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.