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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-CEDAR-RAPIDS-IA · Cedar Rapids, IA 136,859 pop · income 47th pct · 54 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 Cedar Rapids
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cedar Rapids on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dayton · lowest
43,454
Dayton · lowest
43,454 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #1
Ada · near
67,857
Ada · near
67,857 median HH income
63.7% of the leader · rank #2
Beardsley · near
67,857
Beardsley · near
67,857 median HH income
63.7% of the leader · rank #3
Halstad · near
67,857
Halstad · near
67,857 median HH income
63.7% of the leader · rank #4
Norwood Young… · near
67,857
Norwood Young… · near
67,857 median HH income
63.7% of the leader · rank #5
Cedar Rapids · this city
67,859
Cedar Rapids · this city
67,859 median HH income
63.7% of the leader · rank #6
Ankeny · highest
106,603
Ankeny · highest
106,603 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 Cedar Rapids 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: 136,859.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cedar Rapids - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cedar Rapids lands in the 47th percentile for household income and the 16th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
47th
percentile, household income
36th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
16th
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: Cedar Rapids, IA
Iowa's Cedar Rapids is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 136,859 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Cedar Rapids report a median income of $67,859 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.1%. Home values in Cedar Rapids run a median of $177,100, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. About 32.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 608 residential building permits were authorized in Cedar Rapids (Building Boom), up 64% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Cedar Rapids's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2950.6 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 49.9°F with 38.8 inches of precipitation per year and 34.3 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Iowa scores 87.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $989 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Iowa, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 15.9 minutes, with 77.0% driving alone and 12.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 39.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cedar Rapids'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to climate and hazard context to reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cedar Rapids, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Cedar Rapids?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.1%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cedar Rapids?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Davenport (101,083 residents, $64,497 income); Sioux City (85,651 residents, $65,473 income); Iowa City (75,264 residents, $57,533 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dayton, OH (136,741 residents); Pasadena, CA (136,462 residents); Hampton, VA (137,334 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Cedar Rapids?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.9 minutes.
What can 54 Census tracts reveal inside Cedar Rapids?
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 54 Census tracts to this city.
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 Cedar Rapids growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +82 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 608 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+0.1%
2025 estimate
137,935
2020 estimate
137,853
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Cedar Rapids?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.9°F, with 38.8 inches of precipitation and 34.3 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Iowa is 39.7 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.
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.
Mean temperature
49.9°F
Annual precipitation
38.8 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
39.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cedar Rapids?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2950.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 29% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2689.1
Violent rate
261.5
Total reported rate
2950.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Cedar Rapids?
The NCES join finds 42 public schools within the city match. 32.9% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
42
Bachelor's degree+
32.9%
Poverty estimate
7.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 7.1% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
C
City profile score · Cedar Rapids, IA
58/100
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.
Cost of living A+
87.8 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 C+
32.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$67,859
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
262 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cedar Rapids profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 63/100 (C+) · 32.9%
Poverty rate: 52/100 (C-) · 7.1%
Household income: 46/100 (D) · $67,859
Violent crime: 39/100 (F) · 262 /100k
Where Cedar Rapids sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cedar Rapids'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 - Cedar Rapids highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Cedar Rapids, IA (this city): home $177,100, crime 2,951/100k
Dayton, OH : home $93,200, crime 5,673/100k
Pasadena, CA : home $1,045,000, crime 3,177/100k
Hampton, VA : home $234,100, crime 3,130/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
Elizabeth, NJ : home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Davenport, IA : home $162,900, crime 4,122/100k
Sioux City, IA : home $162,600, crime 3,879/100k
Iowa City, IA : home $273,600, crime 1,995/100k
Ankeny, IA : home $311,300, crime 1,188/100k
West Des Moines, IA : home $286,300, crime 1,879/100k
Waterloo, IA : home $150,200, crime 2,921/100k
How does Cedar Rapids compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cedar Rapids stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income47% higher than other cities
Home value36% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety16% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Iowa alone, Cedar Rapids ranks #132 of 141 Iowa cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cedar Rapids against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Iowa only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Iowa-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cedar Rapids near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cedar Rapids ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cedar Rapids only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#367 of 845
57th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#169 of 849
80th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#363 of 858
57th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#96 of 858
89th percentile in Iowa
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 Iowa only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
47th percentile nationally for median household income · 16th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cedar Rapids's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cedar Rapids'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 Cedar Rapids's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$177,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 64% 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
Cedar Rapids's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,563 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#51 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.6×, Cedar Rapids sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,563 of 15,516 and #51 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$67,859Cedar Rapids, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cedar Rapids, IA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cedar Rapids, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
136,859
Median Income
$67,859
Median Home Value
$177,100
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
7.1%
Labor force participation
65.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2950.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
261.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2689.1
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
49.9°F
Annual Precipitation
38.8"
Annual Snowfall
34.3"
Schools
Total Schools
42
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cedar Rapids's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
137,853 residents
2021
137,117 residents
2022
136,806 residents
2023
136,243 residents
2024
137,022 residents
2025
137,935 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
608
housing units authorized
Single-Family
143
detached homes
Multifamily
465
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
370
173
197
$52.8M
2020
236
130
106
$39.9M
2021
438
158
280
$68.8M
2022
354
129
225
$72.7M
2023
374
145
229
$60.9M
2024
608
143
465
$99.9M
Permit volume increased 64% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.9 minutes
Drive Alone
77.0%
Carpool
6.5%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
12.6%
Other
1.1%
Based on 71,655 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Iowa statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Iowa at $212 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Iowa statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cedar Rapids. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Iowa's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cedar Rapids is $989/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Iowa statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Iowa statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cedar Rapids sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cedar Rapids compares to similar-size Iowa 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.