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Place dossier plate
SheetID-MOSCOW-ID · Moscow, ID 25,868 pop · income 30th pct · 9 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 Moscow
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Moscow on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Moscow · this city · lowest
56,497
Moscow · this city · lowest
56,497 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #1
Elbert · near
56,500
Elbert · near
56,500 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #2
Babson Park · near
56,500
Babson Park · near
56,500 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #3
Hagan · near
56,500
Hagan · near
56,500 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #4
Ridgeway · near
56,500
Ridgeway · near
56,500 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #5
Colleyville · highest
203,566
Colleyville · highest
203,566 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Moscow 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: 25,868.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Moscow - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Moscow lands in the 30th percentile for household income and the 62nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
72nd
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
62nd
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: Moscow, ID
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 25,868 residents in Moscow, a small city within Idaho. Median household income here is $56,497 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.0%. Moscow's housing stock carries a median value of $352,000, and the median resident age is 25.3 years. About 54.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 133 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 108% from five years earlier. Moscow reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1034.3 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,173 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Idaho's average monthly utility costs around $170 (state average). The average commute for Moscow workers runs 12.6 minutes, with 59.6% driving alone and 9.9% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 38.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Moscow'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 within-city variation to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Moscow, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 9 Census tracts reveal inside Moscow?
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.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 54.3% 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.
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 +1,193 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 133 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 Moscow?
Within Idaho, the closest population matches are Kuna (25,960 residents, $93,545 income); Eagle (31,490 residents, $118,037 income); Ammon (18,496 residents, $84,154 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ballenger Creek, MD (25,866 residents); Terrytown, LA (25,844 residents); Fort Washington, MD (25,843 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.
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 Moscow?
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 59.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 12.6 minutes.
Public transit
0.2%
Work from home
9.9%
Drive alone
59.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 13,245 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Moscow?
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 1034.3 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.
Property rate
1015.6
Violent rate
18.7
Total reported rate
1034.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Moscow?
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 11.0%, 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. 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.
Household income
$56,497
Home value
$352,000
Value / income
6.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 11.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
95.5 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Idaho average
C
City profile score · Moscow, ID
58/100
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.
Violent crime A+
19 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A
54.3%
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 F
11.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$56,497
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Moscow profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 92/100 (A+) · 19 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 54.3%
Cost of living: 61/100 (C+) · 95.5 index
Poverty rate: 36/100 (F) · 11.0%
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $56,497
Where Moscow sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Moscow'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 - Moscow highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Moscow, ID (this city): home $352,000, crime 1,034/100k
Imperial Beach, CA : home $811,000, crime 1,176/100k
Colleyville, TX : home $718,900, crime 577/100k
Key West, FL : home $816,300, crime 2,612/100k
Lewiston, ID : home $290,900, crime 1,504/100k
Mountain Home, ID : home $270,700, 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 Moscow compare to other US cities?
Where Moscow sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value72% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety62% 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 Idaho alone, Moscow ranks #34 of 53 Idaho 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 Moscow 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 Moscow near the bottom of Idaho's cities
Among the 215 Idaho cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Moscow ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Moscow only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#132 of 206
36th percentile in Idaho
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 215
0th percentile in Idaho
Median Home Value
#39 of 204
81st percentile in Idaho
Poverty Rate
#76 of 215
64th percentile in Idaho
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#10 of 215
95th 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 62nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Moscow's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Moscow'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 Moscow's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$352,00028th percentilemore affordable than 28% 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
Moscow's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,282 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,015 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.2×, Moscow sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,282 of 15,516 and #3,015 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
$56,497Moscow, ID median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Moscow, 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 Moscow, ID.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)54.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
25,868
Median Income
$56,497
Median Home Value
$352,000
Median Age
25.3
Poverty Rate
11.0%
Labor force participation
60.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
54.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1034.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
18.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1015.6
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Moscow's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,528 residents
2021
25,952 residents
2022
26,403 residents
2023
26,507 residents
2024
26,647 residents
2025
26,721 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
133
housing units authorized
Single-Family
55
detached homes
Multifamily
78
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
64
38
26
$14.0M
2020
59
43
16
$14.0M
2021
97
43
54
$19.3M
2022
57
41
16
$17.5M
2023
101
33
68
$21.3M
2024
133
55
78
$33.4M
Permit volume increased 108% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
12.6 minutes
Drive Alone
59.6%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
17.6%
Work from Home
9.9%
Other
2.7%
Based on 13,245 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 Moscow. 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 Moscow 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 Moscow sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Moscow 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.