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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-WINTERSET-IA · Winterset, IA 5,384 pop · income 48th 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 Winterset
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Winterset on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sansom Park · lowest
40,993
Sansom Park · lowest
40,993 median HH income
20.9% of the leader · rank #1
Harold · near
69,265
Harold · near
69,265 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #2
Winterset · this city
69,268
Winterset · this city
69,268 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #3
Orlando · near
69,268
Orlando · near
69,268 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #4
Kimball · near
69,271
Kimball · near
69,271 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #5
Holstein · near
69,271
Holstein · near
69,271 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #6
East Freehold · highest
195,804
East Freehold · highest
195,804 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 Winterset 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: 5,384.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Winterset - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Winterset places in the 48th percentile for household income and the 68th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
48th
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
68th
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: Winterset, IA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 5,384 residents in Winterset, a small town within Iowa. Winterset households earn a median of $69,268 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.5%. Typical homes in Winterset are valued around $181,500, and the median resident age is 37.0 years. Educational attainment runs 21.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 62 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 94% from five years earlier. Winterset reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 912.0 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 climate normals record an annual average temperature of 48.1°F with 34.8 inches of precipitation per year and 30.7 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. 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 Winterset'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to climate and hazard context to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Winterset, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Winterset growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +132 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 62 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Winterset?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Sheldon (5,386 residents, $68,448 income); Centerville (5,377 residents, $41,472 income); Clarinda (5,366 residents, $50,644 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cameron, TX (5,385 residents); Old Fig Garden, CA (5,387 residents); East Freehold, NJ (5,381 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Winterset?
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 7.5%, 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Winterset?
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 79.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
11.3%
Drive alone
79.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,717 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Winterset?
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 912.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 60% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
725.9
Violent rate
186.1
Total reported rate
912.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Winterset?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 21.2% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
21.2%
Poverty estimate
7.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 48.1°F, with 34.8 inches of precipitation and 30.7 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
48.1°F
Annual precipitation
34.8 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.
Below median income · poverty 7.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
C
City profile score · Winterset, IA
57/100
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.
Poverty rate C-
7.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
186 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$69,268
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Winterset profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 50/100 (C-) · 7.5%
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 186 /100k
Household income: 48/100 (D) · $69,268
Bachelor's+ share: 38/100 (F) · 21.2%
Where Winterset sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Winterset'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 - Winterset highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Winterset, IA (this city): home $181,500, crime 912/100k
Cameron, TX : home $112,800, crime 1,147/100k
Deer Park, OH : home $189,400, crime 867/100k
Colby, KS : home $150,700, crime 1,094/100k
Sheldon, IA : home $173,600, crime 982/100k
Centerville, IA : home $99,000, crime 1,315/100k
Clarinda, IA : home $112,200, crime 1,305/100k
Algona, IA : home $156,200, crime 227/100k
Spirit Lake, IA : home $218,400, crime 1,728/100k
Osceola, IA : home $145,300, crime 2,208/100k
How does Winterset compare to other US cities?
Here's how Winterset stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income48% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety68% 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, Winterset ranks #72 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 Winterset 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 Winterset near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Winterset ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Winterset only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#344 of 845
59th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#162 of 849
81st percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#336 of 858
60th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#299 of 858
64th 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
48th percentile nationally for median household income · 68th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Winterset's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Winterset'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 Winterset's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$181,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Winterset's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,620 of 15,516
More affordable than 70% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,097 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Winterset sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,620 of 15,516 and #4,097 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
$69,268Winterset, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Winterset, 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 Winterset, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,384
Median Income
$69,268
Median Home Value
$181,500
Median Age
37.0
Poverty Rate
7.5%
Labor force participation
67.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
912.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
186.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
725.9
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
48.1°F
Annual Precipitation
34.8"
Annual Snowfall
30.7"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Winterset's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,388 residents
2021
5,415 residents
2022
5,470 residents
2023
5,422 residents
2024
5,443 residents
2025
5,520 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
62
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
55
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
11.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
32
23
9
$6.2M
2020
25
23
2
$7.0M
2021
20
20
0
$5.2M
2022
21
17
4
$5.9M
2023
18
10
8
$6.8M
2024
62
7
55
$9.6M
Permit volume increased 94% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.7%
Carpool
4.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
11.3%
Other
1.7%
Based on 2,717 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 Winterset. 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 Winterset 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 Winterset sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Winterset 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.