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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-WILLIAMSBURG-IA · Williamsburg, IA 3,347 pop · income 44th 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 Williamsburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Williamsburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jefferson · lowest
47,469
Jefferson · lowest
47,469 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #1
Pleasanton · near
65,602
Pleasanton · near
65,602 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #2
Albuquerque · near
65,604
Albuquerque · near
65,604 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #3
Quemado · near
65,605
Quemado · near
65,605 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #4
Williamsburg · this city
65,607
Williamsburg · this city
65,607 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #5
Garrett · near
65,611
Garrett · near
65,611 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #6
Robins · highest
122,500
Robins · highest
122,500 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 Williamsburg 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: 3,347.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Williamsburg - the verdict
Williamsburg ranks in the 44th percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
44th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
61st
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: Williamsburg, IA
3,347 people live in Williamsburg, Iowa - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Williamsburg brings in $65,607 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 2.0%. Home values in Williamsburg run a median of $194,000, and the median resident age is 33.9 years. About 37.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 73.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 10 residential building permits were authorized in Williamsburg (Construction Slowdown), down 37% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Williamsburg reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1074.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Williamsburg's yearly average temperature at 48.2°F with 37.7 inches of precipitation per year and 28.1 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Iowa at 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $989 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Iowa run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Williamsburg'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 work and mobility to population change to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Williamsburg, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Williamsburg?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Williamsburg?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.7%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Williamsburg?
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 Robins (3,349 residents, $122,500 income); Story City (3,363 residents, $73,558 income); Milford (3,315 residents, $60,571 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jefferson, OH (3,347 residents); Mount Oliver, PA (3,347 residents); Petersburg, AK (3,346 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.
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Williamsburg?
PlainCities matches 4 Census tracts to this city.
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.
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 Williamsburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +53 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 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
3,355
2025 estimate
3,408
Period change
+1.6%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Williamsburg?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 48.2°F, with 37.7 inches of precipitation and 28.1 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
39.7
Annual precipitation
37.7 in
Mean temperature
48.2°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the education layer cover for Williamsburg?
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. 37.8% 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.
Poverty estimate
2.0%
Bachelor's degree+
37.8%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Williamsburg?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1074.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% 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.
Total reported rate
1074.6
Violent rate
179.1
Property rate
895.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Poverty rate A
2.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C-
179 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$65,607
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Williamsburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 86/100 (A) · 2.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.8%
Violent crime: 51/100 (C-) · 179 /100k
Household income: 43/100 (D) · $65,607
Where Williamsburg sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Williamsburg'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 - Williamsburg highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Williamsburg, IA (this city): home $194,000, crime 1,075/100k
Jefferson, OH : home $189,500, crime 851/100k
Mount Oliver, PA : home $84,700, crime 4,036/100k
Petersburg, AK : home $298,500, crime 808/100k
Newcastle, WY : home $173,500, crime 935/100k
Nesquehoning, PA : home $105,400, crime 927/100k
Essexville, MI : home $121,200, crime 579/100k
Robins, IA : home $370,500, crime 334/100k
Story City, IA : home $205,800, crime 676/100k
New Hampton, IA : home $159,200, crime 177/100k
West Burlington, IA : home $126,700, crime 9,781/100k
How does Williamsburg compare to other US cities?
Williamsburg measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income44% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety61% 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, Williamsburg ranks #85 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 Williamsburg 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 Williamsburg near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Williamsburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Williamsburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#426 of 845
50th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#137 of 849
84th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#685 of 858
19th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#75 of 858
91st 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
44th percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Williamsburg's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Williamsburg'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 Williamsburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$194,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Williamsburg's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,459 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,498 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Williamsburg sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,459 of 15,516 and #5,498 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
$65,607Williamsburg, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Williamsburg, 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 Williamsburg, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,347
Median Income
$65,607
Median Home Value
$194,000
Median Age
33.9
Poverty Rate
2.0%
Labor force participation
73.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1074.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
179.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
895.5
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
48.2°F
Annual Precipitation
37.7"
Annual Snowfall
28.1"
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
Williamsburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,355 residents
2021
3,365 residents
2022
3,365 residents
2023
3,361 residents
2024
3,387 residents
2025
3,408 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
6
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
16
7
9
$2.8M
2020
14
10
4
$2.6M
2021
9
7
2
$2.1M
2022
7
7
0
$1.8M
2023
11
7
4
$2.7M
2024
10
6
4
$2.8M
Permit volume decreased 37% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.7%
Carpool
10.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
5.3%
Based on 2,007 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 Williamsburg. 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 Williamsburg 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 Williamsburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Williamsburg 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.