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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-MARENGO-IL · Marengo, IL 7,123 pop · income 53rd 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 Marengo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Marengo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
West Frankfort · lowest
48,143
West Frankfort · lowest
48,143 median HH income
20.8% of the leader · rank #1
Virginia Gard… · near
72,569
Virginia Gard… · near
72,569 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #2
Ambridge Heig… · near
72,574
Ambridge Heig… · near
72,574 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #3
Marengo · this city
72,586
Marengo · this city
72,586 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #4
Ewing · near
72,591
Ewing · near
72,591 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #5
Sussex · near
72,601
Sussex · near
72,601 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #6
Kentfield · highest
231,875
Kentfield · highest
231,875 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 Marengo 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: 7,123.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Marengo - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Marengo places in the 53rd percentile for household income and the 76th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
53rd
percentile, household income
44th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
76th
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: Marengo, IL
Illinois's Marengo is a small town, with 7,123 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $72,586 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.2%. Typical homes in Marengo are valued around $206,100, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. Educational attainment runs 16.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 36 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 620% from five years earlier. Marengo reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 708.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 48.2°F with 37.6 inches of precipitation per year and 30.8 inches of snowfall.
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. 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. 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 Marengo'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 reported crime to climate and hazard context to population change to housing and income to work and mobility 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 Marengo, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, 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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Marengo?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 708.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 69% 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.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 48.2°F, with 37.6 inches of precipitation and 30.8 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +184 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 36 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Marengo?
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 Sandwich (7,121 residents, $77,027 income); University Park (7,109 residents, $65,580 income); West Frankfort (7,156 residents, $48,143 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Putnam, CT (7,120 residents); Contra Costa Centre, CA (7,127 residents); Kentfield, CA (7,128 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Marengo?
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.
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 17.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.8×
Home value
$206,100
Household income
$72,586
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Marengo?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
81.8%
Work from home
6.1%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,352 workers age 16+.
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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 16.5% 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.
Poverty estimate
17.2%
Bachelor's degree+
16.5%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 17.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
D
City profile score · Marengo, IL
41/100
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 C+
131 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C-
$72,586
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Marengo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 63/100 (C+) · 131 /100k
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,586
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.5%
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.2%
Where Marengo sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Marengo'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 - Marengo highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Marengo, IL (this city): home $206,100, crime 708/100k
Putnam, CT : home $236,000, crime 910/100k
Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH : home $171,200, crime 679/100k
Sandwich, IL : home $239,600, crime 305/100k
University Park, IL : home $137,800, crime 2,026/100k
Greenville, IL : home $119,800, crime 1,122/100k
Clinton, IL : home $101,200, crime 2,123/100k
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 Marengo compare to other US cities?
Here's how Marengo stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value44% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety76% 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: Marengo ranks #167 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 Marengo 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 Marengo near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Marengo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Marengo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#537 of 1,311
59th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#337 of 1,315
74th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#178 of 1,335
87th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#755 of 1,336
43rd 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
53rd percentile nationally for median household income · 76th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Marengo's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Marengo'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 Marengo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$206,100Among 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
Marengo's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,803 of 15,516
More affordable than 63% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,015 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Marengo sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,803 of 15,516 and #5,015 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
$72,586Marengo, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Marengo, 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 Marengo, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,123
Median Income
$72,586
Median Home Value
$206,100
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
17.2%
Labor force participation
60.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
708.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
131.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
577.0
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
48.2°F
Annual Precipitation
37.6"
Annual Snowfall
30.8"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Marengo's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,553 residents
2021
7,583 residents
2022
7,569 residents
2023
7,622 residents
2024
7,693 residents
2025
7,737 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
36
housing units authorized
Single-Family
21
detached homes
Multifamily
15
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
5
5
0
$1.0M
2020
8
8
0
$1.5M
2021
24
24
0
$4.8M
2022
29
14
15
$4.5M
2023
35
15
20
$5.6M
2024
36
21
15
$6.3M
Permit volume increased 620% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.8%
Carpool
10.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
6.1%
Based on 3,352 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 Marengo. 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 Marengo 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 Marengo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Marengo 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.