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Place dossier plate
SheetID-GARDEN-CITY-ID · Garden City, ID 12,483 pop · income 46th 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 Garden City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Garden City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Grenada · lowest
42,470
Grenada · lowest
42,470 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #1
Arcadia · near
66,852
Arcadia · near
66,852 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #2
Kendall West · near
66,858
Kendall West · near
66,858 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #3
Monmouth · near
66,858
Monmouth · near
66,858 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #4
Garden City · this city
66,859
Garden City · this city
66,859 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #5
Le Center · near
66,864
Le Center · near
66,864 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #6
Annapolis Neck · highest
171,833
Annapolis Neck · highest
171,833 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 Garden City 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: 12,483.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Garden City - the verdict
Nationally, Garden City sits in the 46th percentile for household income and the 30th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
78th
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
30th
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: Garden City, ID
Garden City is a small town in Idaho, home to 12,483 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Garden City brings in $66,859 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.9%. Typical homes in Garden City are valued around $411,400, and the median resident age is 44.0 years. About 38.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 55.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 89 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 134% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2091.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Idaho run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Idaho at 95.5 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,173 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Idaho run around $170, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Garden City report an average commute of 17.2 minutes, with 68.5% driving alone and 18.4% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 38.5 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Garden City'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Garden City, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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 Garden City?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 38.4% 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 Garden City?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Garden City?
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 Idaho, the closest population matches are Blackfoot (12,628 residents, $69,091 income); Jerome (12,689 residents, $65,343 income); Star (13,231 residents, $91,318 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Annapolis Neck, MD (12,484 residents); Grenada, MS (12,484 residents); Amelia, OH (12,482 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 the FBI record say about safety in Garden City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2091.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 8% 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.
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 Garden City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.2 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
68.5%
Work from home
18.4%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,646 workers age 16+.
Is Garden City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +755 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 89 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
12,292
2025 estimate
13,047
Period change
+6.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 5.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
95.5 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Idaho average
D
City profile score · Garden City, ID
48/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living C+
95.5 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+
5.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$66,859
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
656 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Garden City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 38.4%
Cost of living: 61/100 (C+) · 95.5 index
Poverty rate: 60/100 (C+) · 5.9%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $66,859
Violent crime: 7/100 (F) · 656 /100k
Where Garden City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Garden City'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 - Garden City highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Garden City, ID (this city): home $411,400, crime 2,092/100k
Blackfoot, ID : home $225,900, crime 1,197/100k
Jerome, ID : home $214,900, crime 806/100k
Rathdrum, ID : home $381,800, crime 914/100k
Middleton, ID : home $348,900, crime 727/100k
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 Garden City compare to other US cities?
Garden City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value78% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety30% 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 Idaho, Garden City ranks #52 of 53 Idaho 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 Garden City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Idaho only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Idaho-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Garden City near the bottom of Idaho's cities
Among the 215 Idaho cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Garden City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Garden City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#87 of 206
58th percentile in Idaho
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 215
0th percentile in Idaho
Median Home Value
#28 of 204
86th percentile in Idaho
Poverty Rate
#136 of 215
37th percentile in Idaho
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#28 of 215
87th percentile in Idaho
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 Idaho only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 30th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Garden City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Garden City'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 Garden City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$411,40022nd percentilemore affordable than 22% 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
Garden City's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,212 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,997 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.2×, Garden City sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,212 of 15,516 and #2,997 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$66,859Garden City, ID median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Garden City, ID median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Garden City, ID.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,483
Median Income
$66,859
Median Home Value
$411,400
Median Age
44.0
Poverty Rate
5.9%
Labor force participation
55.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2091.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
656.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1435.6
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Garden City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,292 residents
2021
12,308 residents
2022
12,939 residents
2023
12,807 residents
2024
12,916 residents
2025
13,047 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
89
housing units authorized
Single-Family
89
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
38
38
0
$3.6M
2020
12
10
2
$1.2M
2021
460
29
431
$67.2M
2022
56
21
35
$12.4M
2023
127
127
0
$37.6M
2024
89
89
0
$26.9M
Permit volume increased 134% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.2 minutes
Drive Alone
68.5%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
18.4%
Other
4.2%
Based on 5,646 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Idaho statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $170
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Idaho at $170 (electricity about $80 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Idaho statewide averages, not a meter reading for Garden City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Idaho's BEA cost-of-living index is 95.5 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Garden City is $1,173/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Idaho statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 38.5 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Idaho statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Garden City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Garden City compares to similar-size Idaho 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.