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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-BREESE-IL · Breese, IL 4,373 pop · income 54th 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 Breese
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Breese on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jasper · lowest
43,353
Jasper · lowest
43,353 median HH income
36.5% of the leader · rank #1
Encore at Mon… · near
72,896
Encore at Mon… · near
72,896 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #2
McCallsburg · near
72,898
McCallsburg · near
72,898 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #3
Breese · this city
72,900
Breese · this city
72,900 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #4
Holland · near
72,905
Holland · near
72,905 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #5
Milford · near
72,907
Milford · near
72,907 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #6
Gang Mills · highest
118,790
Gang Mills · highest
118,790 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 Breese 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: 4,373.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Breese - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Breese lands in the 54th percentile for household income and the 96th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
54th
percentile, household income
44th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
96th
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: Breese, IL
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,373 residents in Breese, a small town within Illinois. The typical household in Breese brings in $72,900 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.3%. Typical homes in Breese are valued around $204,600, and the median resident age is 44.1 years. 33.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 5 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 90% from five years earlier. Breese reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 196.5 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Illinois scores 100.0 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,063 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $240 across Illinois, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 54.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Breese'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 within-city variation to reported crime to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Breese, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Breese?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.3%, 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Breese?
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 196.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 91% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Breese?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Auburn (4,357 residents, $79,475 income); Freeburg (4,336 residents, $84,464 income); Pittsfield (4,422 residents, $52,432 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jasper, GA (4,374 residents); Oak Valley, NJ (4,374 residents); Placitas CDP (Sandoval County), NM (4,375 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 Breese?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.7%
Work from home
15.8%
Drive alone
81.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,278 workers age 16+.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -57 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-1.2%
2025 estimate
4,602
2020 estimate
4,659
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 33.3% 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.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
33.3%
Poverty estimate
1.3%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 1.3% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B-
City profile score · Breese, IL
66/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
1.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A
44 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
33.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$72,900
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Breese profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 91/100 (A+) · 1.3%
Violent crime: 85/100 (A) · 44 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 64/100 (C+) · 33.3%
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,900
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Breese sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Breese'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 - Breese highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Breese, IL (this city): home $204,600, crime 197/100k
Jasper, GA : home $252,700, crime 1,265/100k
Prescott, WI : home $282,100, crime 507/100k
Whiteland, IN : home $189,200, crime 877/100k
Auburn, IL : home $145,400, crime 726/100k
Freeburg, IL : home $231,900, crime 157/100k
Pittsfield, IL : home $113,300, crime 1,287/100k
Lebanon, IL : home $146,600, crime 309/100k
Peotone, IL : home $261,400, crime 429/100k
How does Breese compare to other US cities?
Here's how Breese stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value44% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety96% 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: Breese ranks #40 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 Breese 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 Breese near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Breese ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Breese only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#534 of 1,311
59th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#342 of 1,315
74th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#1,184 of 1,335
11th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#256 of 1,336
81st 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
54th percentile nationally for median household income · 96th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Breese's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Breese'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 Breese's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$204,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 56% 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
Breese's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,623 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,875 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Breese sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,623 of 15,516 and #4,875 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
$72,900Breese, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Breese, 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 Breese, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,373
Median Income
$72,900
Median Home Value
$204,600
Median Age
44.1
Poverty Rate
1.3%
Labor force participation
62.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
196.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
43.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
152.9
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.
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
Breese's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,659 residents
2021
4,645 residents
2022
4,642 residents
2023
4,608 residents
2024
4,610 residents
2025
4,602 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
49
9
40
$6.4M
2020
9
9
0
$2.6M
2021
6
6
0
$1.4M
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
3
3
0
$1.0M
2024
5
5
0
$1.8M
Permit volume decreased 90% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.9%
Carpool
1.6%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
15.8%
Based on 2,278 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 Breese. 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 Breese 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 Breese sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Breese 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, 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.