Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetIL-AURORA-IL · Aurora, IL 179,867 pop · income 71st pct · 219 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 Aurora
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Aurora on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Rockford · lowest
53,328
Rockford · lowest
53,328 median HH income
35.3% of the leader · rank #1
Meiners Oaks · near
90,096
Meiners Oaks · near
90,096 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #2
Silverado · near
90,104
Silverado · near
90,104 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #3
Aurora · this city
90,109
Aurora · this city
90,109 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #4
Maineville · near
90,122
Maineville · near
90,122 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #5
Westover · near
90,125
Westover · near
90,125 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #6
Naperville · highest
150,937
Naperville · highest
150,937 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 Aurora 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: 179,867.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Aurora - the verdict
Nationally, Aurora sits in the 71st percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
71st
percentile, household income
58th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Aurora, IL
179,867 people live in Aurora, Illinois - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Aurora report a median income of $90,109 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Typical homes in Aurora are valued around $260,400, and the median resident age is 35.2 years. Educational attainment runs 37.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 68.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 488 residential building permits were authorized in Aurora (Building Boom), up 559% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Aurora reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1517.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 50.2°F with 39.5 inches of precipitation per year and 27.9 inches of snowfall.
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Illinois at 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,063 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 23.9 minutes, with 67.7% driving alone and 14.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Aurora'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 within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Aurora, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Aurora growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,241 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 488 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 Aurora?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Joliet (149,785 residents, $88,026 income); Naperville (149,424 residents, $150,937 income); Rockford (147,649 residents, $53,328 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ontario, CA (178,347 residents); Eugene, OR (177,520 residents); Elk Grove, CA (177,221 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 219 Census tracts to this city.
The NCES join finds 47 public schools within the city match. 37.2% 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.
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 Aurora?
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 67.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.9 minutes.
Public transit
3.6%
Work from home
14.5%
Drive alone
67.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 92,384 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Aurora?
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 1517.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1251.9
Violent rate
266.0
Total reported rate
1517.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Aurora?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.0%, 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.
Household income
$90,109
Home value
$260,400
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.2°F, with 39.5 inches of precipitation and 27.9 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Illinois is 54.5 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
50.2°F
Annual precipitation
39.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
54.5
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above median income · poverty 8.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
C-
City profile score · Aurora, IL
53/100
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
37.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$90,109
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living D
100.0 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 F
266 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Aurora profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 70/100 (B) · 37.2%
Household income: 69/100 (B-) · $90,109
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Violent crime: 38/100 (F) · 266 /100k
Where Aurora sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Aurora'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 - Aurora highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Aurora, IL (this city): home $260,400, crime 1,518/100k
Ontario, CA : home $568,000, crime 2,090/100k
Eugene, OR : home $435,400, crime 3,574/100k
Elk Grove, CA : home $603,400, crime 1,422/100k
Santa Rosa, CA : home $685,000, crime 1,663/100k
Chattanooga, TN : home $259,200, crime 4,766/100k
Joliet, IL : home $248,600, crime 1,595/100k
Naperville, IL : home $509,900, crime 967/100k
Rockford, IL : home $120,900, crime 3,597/100k
Elgin, IL : home $252,400, crime 1,369/100k
Springfield, IL : home $155,200, crime 5,813/100k
Peoria, IL : home $149,500, crime 5,629/100k
How does Aurora compare to other US cities?
Aurora measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income71% higher than other cities
Home value58% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety45% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Illinois and the picture shifts: Aurora ranks #311 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Aurora against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Illinois only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Illinois-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Aurora near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Aurora ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Aurora only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#299 of 1,311
77th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#211 of 1,315
84th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#596 of 1,335
55th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#215 of 1,336
84th percentile in Illinois
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 Illinois only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
71st percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Aurora's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Aurora'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 Aurora's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$260,40042nd percentilemore affordable than 42% 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
Aurora's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,058 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#102 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.9×, Aurora sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,058 of 15,516 and #102 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$90,109Aurora, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Aurora, IL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Aurora, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
179,867
Median Income
$90,109
Median Home Value
$260,400
Median Age
35.2
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
68.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1517.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
266.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1251.9
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
50.2°F
Annual Precipitation
39.5"
Annual Snowfall
27.9"
Schools
Total Schools
47
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Aurora's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
180,264 residents
2021
179,458 residents
2022
179,114 residents
2023
179,717 residents
2024
180,910 residents
2025
181,505 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
488
housing units authorized
Single-Family
464
detached homes
Multifamily
24
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
74
72
2
$20.8M
2020
93
91
2
$29.9M
2021
71
55
16
$18.8M
2022
113
113
0
$23.2M
2023
364
316
48
$137.4M
2024
488
464
24
$195.0M
Permit volume increased 559% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.9 minutes
Drive Alone
67.7%
Carpool
11.2%
Public Transit
3.6%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
14.5%
Other
1.4%
Based on 92,384 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Illinois statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $240
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Illinois at $240 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Illinois statewide averages, not a meter reading for Aurora. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Illinois's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.0 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Aurora is $1,063/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Illinois statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Illinois statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Aurora sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Aurora compares to similar-size Illinois 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.