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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-LE-MARS-IA · Le Mars, IA 10,597 pop · income 53rd 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 Le Mars
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Le Mars on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ironton · lowest
45,694
Ironton · lowest
45,694 median HH income
36.0% of the leader · rank #1
Upper Sandusky · near
72,379
Upper Sandusky · near
72,379 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #2
Portland · near
72,380
Portland · near
72,380 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #3
Le Mars · this city
72,381
Le Mars · this city
72,381 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #4
Woods Hole · near
72,386
Woods Hole · near
72,386 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #5
Stuart · near
72,386
Stuart · near
72,386 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Morton-B… · highest
127,074
Lake Morton-B… · highest
127,074 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 Le Mars 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: 10,597.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Le Mars - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Le Mars places in the 53rd percentile for household income and the 63rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
53rd
percentile, household income
43rd
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
63rd
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: Le Mars, IA
Le Mars is a small town in Iowa, home to 10,597 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Le Mars report a median income of $72,381 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.0%. Le Mars's housing stock carries a median value of $202,200, and the median resident age is 39.1 years. Educational attainment runs 24.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 68.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 126 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 40% from five years earlier. Le Mars reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1016.6 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 46.9°F with 30.0 inches of precipitation per year and 30.9 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $989 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Iowa, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Le Mars workers runs 15.7 minutes, with 82.6% driving alone and 2.6% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 39.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Le Mars'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 reported crime to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Le Mars, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Le Mars?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.0%, 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 Le Mars?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Pella (10,624 residents, $81,201 income); Waverly (10,446 residents, $78,429 income); Pleasant Hill (10,796 residents, $86,890 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bonham, TX (10,594 residents); Sleepy Hollow, NY (10,592 residents); Lake Morton-Berrydale, WA (10,591 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Le Mars?
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 1016.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 55% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Le Mars?
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 82.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.7 minutes.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Le Mars?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.9°F, with 30.0 inches of precipitation and 30.9 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
46.9°F
Annual precipitation
30.0 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.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +157 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 126 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
+1.5%
2025 estimate
10,760
2020 estimate
10,603
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 24.3% 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
6
Bachelor's degree+
24.3%
Poverty estimate
6.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 6.0% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
B-
City profile score · Le Mars, IA
65/100
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.
Violent crime B
94 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$72,381
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Le Mars profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Violent crime: 72/100 (B) · 94 /100k
Poverty rate: 59/100 (C) · 6.0%
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,381
Bachelor's+ share: 47/100 (D) · 24.3%
Where Le Mars sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Le Mars'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 - Le Mars highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Le Mars, IA (this city): home $202,200, crime 1,017/100k
Bonham, TX : home $183,600, crime 789/100k
Ironton, OH : home $112,400, crime 745/100k
Nanticoke, PA : home $103,800, crime 1,733/100k
Pella, IA : home $259,600, crime 1,060/100k
Waverly, IA : home $215,200, crime 1,027/100k
Carroll, IA : home $184,100, crime 1,018/100k
Fort Madison, IA : home $95,900, crime 1,987/100k
Storm Lake, IA : home $163,600, crime 1,966/100k
How does Le Mars compare to other US cities?
Here's how Le Mars stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value43% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety63% 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, Le Mars ranks #78 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 Le Mars 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 Le Mars near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Le Mars ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Le Mars only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#289 of 845
66th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#128 of 849
85th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#414 of 858
51st percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#209 of 858
76th 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
53rd percentile nationally for median household income · 63rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Le Mars's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Le Mars'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 Le Mars's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$202,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 57% 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
Le Mars's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,549 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#645 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Le Mars sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,549 of 15,516 and #645 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$72,381Le Mars, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Le Mars, 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 Le Mars, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,597
Median Income
$72,381
Median Home Value
$202,200
Median Age
39.1
Poverty Rate
6.0%
Labor force participation
68.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1016.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
94.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
922.4
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
46.9°F
Annual Precipitation
30.0"
Annual Snowfall
30.9"
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
Le Mars's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,603 residents
2021
10,626 residents
2022
10,612 residents
2023
10,610 residents
2024
10,605 residents
2025
10,760 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
126
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
118
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
11.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
90
29
61
$13.5M
2020
21
21
0
$5.3M
2021
22
22
0
$7.6M
2022
14
14
0
$6.5M
2023
19
5
14
$6.0M
2024
126
8
118
$17.5M
Permit volume increased 40% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.7 minutes
Drive Alone
82.6%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
2.6%
Other
0.8%
Based on 5,586 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 Le Mars. 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 Le Mars 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 Le Mars sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Le Mars 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.