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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-HIAWASSEE-GA · Hiawassee, GA 1,300 pop · income 12th pct · 4 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 Hiawassee
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hiawassee on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Flordell Hills · lowest
31,786
Flordell Hills · lowest
31,786 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #1
Fowlkes · near
43,813
Fowlkes · near
43,813 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #2
Seabrook Farms · near
43,815
Seabrook Farms · near
43,815 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #3
Spring Valley… · near
43,816
Spring Valley… · near
43,816 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #4
Hiawassee · this city
43,819
Hiawassee · this city
43,819 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #5
Bluefield · near
43,826
Bluefield · near
43,826 median HH income
33.2% 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 Hiawassee 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: 1,300.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Hiawassee places in the 12th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
12th
percentile, household income
74th
percentile, home value
51st
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: Hiawassee, GA
Georgia's Hiawassee is a small town, with 1,300 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Hiawassee report a median income of $43,819 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.6%. Typical homes in Hiawassee are valued around $365,300, and the median resident age is 53.4 years. 33.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 41.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,203 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Georgia run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Hiawassee'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 within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Hiawassee, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles.
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.
Question 1
Is Hiawassee growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +52 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Hiawassee?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 33.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hiawassee?
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 Bogart (1,298 residents, $82,500 income); Boston (1,305 residents, $40,156 income); Porterdale (1,291 residents, $41,635 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Gilbert, IA (1,300 residents); Flordell Hills, MO (1,300 residents); Russell, PA (1,300 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Hiawassee?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.0%. 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.
Drive alone
77.0%
Work from home
18.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 440 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Hiawassee?
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 8.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
8.3×
Home value
$365,300
Household income
$43,819
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
F
City profile score · Hiawassee, GA
36/100
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 C+
33.8%
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.
Poverty rate F
14.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$43,819
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Hiawassee profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 64/100 (C+) · 33.8%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.6%
Household income: 12/100 (F) · $43,819
How does Hiawassee compare to other US cities?
Here's how Hiawassee stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income12% higher than other cities
Home value74% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% 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 Hiawassee 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 Hiawassee near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hiawassee ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hiawassee only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#431 of 610
29th percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#52 of 577
91st percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#270 of 637
57th percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#112 of 638
82nd 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
12th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Hiawassee's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$365,30026th percentilemore affordable than 26% 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
Hiawassee's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,125 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,089 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 8.3×, Hiawassee sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,125 of 15,516 and #11,089 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
$43,819Hiawassee, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hiawassee, 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 Hiawassee, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)41.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,300
Median Income
$43,819
Median Home Value
$365,300
Median Age
53.4
Poverty Rate
14.6%
Labor force participation
41.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.8%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hiawassee's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
986 residents
2021
1,001 residents
2022
1,011 residents
2023
999 residents
2024
1,035 residents
2025
1,038 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.9M
2020
4
4
0
$0.8M
2021
2
2
0
$0.1M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
20
20
0
$5.7M
2024
3
1
2
$1.1M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.0%
Carpool
1.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
18.4%
Other
0.8%
Based on 440 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 Hiawassee. 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 Hiawassee 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 Hiawassee sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hiawassee 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, 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.