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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-CHRISTOPHER-IL · Christopher, IL 2,413 pop · income 10th 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 Christopher
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Christopher on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
San Andreas · lowest
42,231
San Andreas · lowest
42,231 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #1
Christopher · this city
42,244
Christopher · this city
42,244 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #2
Morgantown · near
42,245
Morgantown · near
42,245 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #3
Pioneer Junct… · near
42,250
Pioneer Junct… · near
42,250 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #4
Rattan · near
42,250
Rattan · near
42,250 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #5
Belvedere · highest
250,001
Belvedere · highest
250,001 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 Christopher 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: 2,413.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Christopher - the verdict
Nationally, Christopher sits in the 10th percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
2nd
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Christopher, IL
2,413 people live in Christopher, Illinois - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Christopher households earn a median of $42,244 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.6%. Home values in Christopher run a median of $68,800, and the median resident age is 49.3 years. 15.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 45.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits). Christopher's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3394.4 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,063 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Christopher report an average commute of 23.2 minutes, with 83.6% driving alone and 5.9% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 54.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Christopher'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 work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Christopher, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Christopher?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Christopher?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.2 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. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Christopher?
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. 15.7% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Christopher?
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 Illinois, the closest population matches are Fairmont (2,409 residents, $59,244 income); Amboy (2,396 residents, $76,667 income); Aviston (2,451 residents, $111,354 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hinton, WV (2,413 residents); Riverview, DE (2,412 residents); Belle Plaine, IA (2,412 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.
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.
Population change
Is Christopher growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -71 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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 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.
2020 estimate
2,678
2025 estimate
2,607
Period change
-2.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Christopher?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3394.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% higher 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.
Total reported rate
3394.4
Violent rate
114.4
Property rate
3279.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 17.6% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
F
City profile score · Christopher, IL
31/100
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 B-
114 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$42,244
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Christopher profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 67/100 (B-) · 114 /100k
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 22/100 (F) · 15.7%
Poverty rate: 18/100 (F) · 17.6%
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,244
Where Christopher sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Christopher'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 - Christopher highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Christopher, IL (this city): home $68,800, crime 3,394/100k
Belle Plaine, IA : home $111,600, crime 1,963/100k
Belvedere, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 444/100k
Amboy, IL : home $132,600, crime 180/100k
Aviston, IL : home $217,000, crime 82/100k
Fairmont City, IL : home $65,500, crime 931/100k
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 Christopher compare to other US cities?
Where Christopher sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value2% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety12% 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: Christopher ranks #425 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 Christopher 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 Christopher near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Christopher ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Christopher only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,227 of 1,311
6th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#1,185 of 1,315
10th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#170 of 1,335
87th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#784 of 1,336
41st 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
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Christopher's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Christopher'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 Christopher's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$68,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 98% 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
Christopher's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#617 of 15,516
More affordable than 96% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#603 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.6×, Christopher sits in the affordable band:
national rank #617 of 15,516 and #603 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
$42,244Christopher, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Christopher, 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 Christopher, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,413
Median Income
$42,244
Median Home Value
$68,800
Median Age
49.3
Poverty Rate
17.6%
Labor force participation
45.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3394.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
114.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3279.9
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Christopher's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,678 residents
2021
2,659 residents
2022
2,636 residents
2023
2,627 residents
2024
2,613 residents
2025
2,607 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.2 minutes
Drive Alone
83.6%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
5.9%
Based on 922 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 Christopher. 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 Christopher 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 Christopher sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Christopher 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.