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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-ST-SIMONS-GA · St. Simons, GA 16,026 pop · income 81st pct · 26 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 St. Simons
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest St. Simons on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Americus · lowest
39,527
Americus · lowest
39,527 median HH income
15.8% of the leader · rank #1
Lizton · near
105,938
Lizton · near
105,938 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #2
Petersham · near
105,938
Petersham · near
105,938 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #3
St. Simons · this city
105,944
St. Simons · this city
105,944 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #4
Landen · near
105,948
Landen · near
105,948 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #5
Royal Pines · near
105,956
Royal Pines · near
105,956 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #6
Wolf Trap · highest
250,001
Wolf Trap · highest
250,001 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 St. Simons 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: 16,026.
St. Simons ranks in the 81st percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
81st
percentile, household income
84th
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: St. Simons, GA
Georgia's St. Simons is a small town, with 16,026 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $105,944 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.7%. Home values in St. Simons run a median of $484,100, and the median resident age is 59.0 years. Educational attainment runs 55.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 48.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,203 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Georgia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 St. Simons'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For St. Simons, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in St. Simons?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in St. Simons?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for St. Simons?
Within Georgia, the closest population matches are Dublin (16,023 residents, $40,417 income); Lithia Springs (16,138 residents, $54,982 income); Americus (15,910 residents, $39,527 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Floral Park, NY (16,025 residents); Lynden, WA (16,025 residents); Hayden, ID (16,021 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.
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.
What can 26 Census tracts reveal inside St. Simons?
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.
PlainCities matches 26 Census tracts to this city.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
B+
City profile score · St. Simons, GA
76/100
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 A
55.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A-
2.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income A-
$105,944
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
St. Simons profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 55.2%
Poverty rate: 81/100 (A-) · 2.7%
Household income: 80/100 (A-) · $105,944
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
How does St. Simons compare to other US cities?
St. Simons measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income81% higher than other cities
Home value84% 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 St. Simons 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 St. Simons near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, St. Simons ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares St. Simons only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#45 of 610
93rd percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#19 of 577
97th percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#556 of 637
12th percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#33 of 638
95th 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
81st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How St. Simons's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$484,10016th percentilemore affordable than 16% 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
St. Simons's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,126 of 15,516
More affordable than 22% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,395 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.6×, St. Simons sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,126 of 15,516 and #2,395 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$105,944St. Simons, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context St. Simons, 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 St. Simons, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)55.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,026
Median Income
$105,944
Median Home Value
$484,100
Median Age
59.0
Poverty Rate
2.7%
Labor force participation
48.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
55.2%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.0%
Carpool
4.6%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
1.2%
Work from Home
17.1%
Other
3.0%
Based on 6,761 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 St. Simons. 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 St. Simons 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 St. Simons sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How St. Simons 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, 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.