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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-FAIRBANK-IA · Fairbank, IA 1,509 pop · income 78th pct
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 Fairbank
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fairbank on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Stamps · lowest
33,152
Stamps · lowest
33,152 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #1
Cordry Sweetw… · near
100,167
Cordry Sweetw… · near
100,167 median HH income
96.8% of the leader · rank #2
Nisswa · near
100,167
Nisswa · near
100,167 median HH income
96.8% of the leader · rank #3
Little Walnut · near
100,170
Little Walnut · near
100,170 median HH income
96.8% of the leader · rank #4
Fairbank · this city
100,172
Fairbank · this city
100,172 median HH income
96.8% of the leader · rank #5
James Island · near
100,176
James Island · near
100,176 median HH income
96.8% of the leader · rank #6
South Coventry · highest
103,466
South Coventry · highest
103,466 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 Fairbank 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: 1,509.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Fairbank - the verdict
Nationally, Fairbank sits in the 78th percentile for household income and the 65th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
78th
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
65th
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: Fairbank, IA
1,509 people live in Fairbank, Iowa - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Fairbank report a median income of $100,172 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.7%. Typical homes in Fairbank are valued around $173,200, and the median resident age is 41.2 years. About 19.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 5 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 150% from five years earlier. Fairbank reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 969.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: the state registers 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $989 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Iowa run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Fairbank'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 schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fairbank, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Fairbank?
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 6 public schools within the city match. 19.9% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Fairbank?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Fairbank?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 969.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fairbank?
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 Iowa, the closest population matches are Sanborn (1,510 residents, $56,477 income); Oakland (1,500 residents, $72,500 income); Panora (1,520 residents, $65,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are South Coventry, CT (1,509 residents); Epworth, GA (1,509 residents); Stearns, KY (1,509 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 Fairbank growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +36 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 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.
2020 estimate
1,109
2025 estimate
1,145
Period change
+3.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Fairbank?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.6%. 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.
Drive alone
83.6%
Work from home
11.8%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 748 workers age 16+.
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Household income B+
$100,172
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B
88 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Fairbank profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 95/100 (A+) · 0.7%
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $100,172
Violent crime: 74/100 (B) · 88 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 34/100 (F) · 19.9%
Where Fairbank sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Fairbank'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 - Fairbank highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
Fairbank, IA (this city): home $173,200, crime 969/100k
Panora, IA : home $164,500, crime 370/100k
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 Fairbank compare to other US cities?
Fairbank measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income78% higher than other cities
Home value34% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety65% 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 Iowa, Fairbank ranks #74 of 141 Iowa 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 Fairbank 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 Fairbank near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fairbank ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fairbank only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#61 of 845
93rd percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#181 of 849
79th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#755 of 858
12th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#347 of 858
59th 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
78th percentile nationally for median household income · 65th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Fairbank's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Fairbank'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 Fairbank's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$173,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Fairbank's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#819 of 15,516
More affordable than 95% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#794 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.7×, Fairbank sits in the affordable band:
national rank #819 of 15,516 and #794 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$100,172Fairbank, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fairbank, 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 Fairbank, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,509
Median Income
$100,172
Median Home Value
$173,200
Median Age
41.2
Poverty Rate
0.7%
Labor force participation
64.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
969.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
88.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
881.1
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.
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fairbank's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,109 residents
2021
1,117 residents
2022
1,121 residents
2023
1,132 residents
2024
1,129 residents
2025
1,145 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.5M
2020
4
4
0
$1.0M
2021
4
4
0
$1.0M
2022
6
6
0
$1.6M
2023
3
3
0
$0.9M
2024
5
5
0
$1.6M
Permit volume increased 150% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.6%
Carpool
1.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.1%
Work from Home
11.8%
Other
2.8%
Based on 748 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 Fairbank. 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 Fairbank 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 Fairbank sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fairbank 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, 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.