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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-MASON-CITY-IL · Mason City, IL 2,094 pop · income 42nd 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 Mason City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mason City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Vienna · lowest
39,471
Vienna · lowest
39,471 median HH income
16.8% of the leader · rank #1
Mason City · this city
64,250
Mason City · this city
64,250 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #2
Dagsboro · near
64,250
Dagsboro · near
64,250 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #3
Kingsville · near
64,250
Kingsville · near
64,250 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #4
Flushing · near
64,250
Flushing · near
64,250 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #5
Huntsville · near
64,250
Huntsville · near
64,250 median HH income
27.3% of the leader · rank #6
Forsgate · highest
235,357
Forsgate · highest
235,357 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 Mason City 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: 2,094.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mason City - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Mason City places in the 42nd percentile for household income and the 81st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
42nd
percentile, household income
7th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
81st
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: Mason City, IL
Illinois's Mason City is a small town, with 2,094 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Mason City report a median income of $64,250 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. Typical homes in Mason City are valued around $92,200, and the median resident age is 51.5 years. Educational attainment runs 20.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 49.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Mason City reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 614.4 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Mason City's yearly average temperature at 51.7°F with 39.3 inches of precipitation per year and 12.9 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,063 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $240 across Illinois, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Mason City'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mason City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count.
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
Which cities make useful reference points for Mason City?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Moweaqua (2,093 residents, $71,364 income); Albion (2,107 residents, $56,172 income); Lexington (2,074 residents, $98,676 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North Judson, IN (2,094 residents); Forsgate, NJ (2,094 residents); Lampeter, PA (2,094 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Mason City?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.6%, 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. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mason City?
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 614.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 73% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for Mason City?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 20.4% 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 Mason City?
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 84.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.2%
Work from home
7.0%
Drive alone
84.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 862 workers age 16+.
What physical conditions frame life in Mason City?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 51.7°F, with 39.3 inches of precipitation and 12.9 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
51.7°F
Annual precipitation
39.3 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.
Is Mason City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 -112 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.4% 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.
Period change
-5.4%
2025 estimate
1,956
2020 estimate
2,068
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
D
City profile score · Mason City, IL
48/100
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-
51 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$64,250
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.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Mason City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 83/100 (A-) · 51 /100k
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,250
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.4%
Where Mason City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mason City'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 - Mason City highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Mason City, IL (this city): home $92,200, crime 614/100k
Albion, IL : home $93,000, crime 379/100k
Lexington, IL : home $171,600, crime 48/100k
Vienna, IL : home $77,400, crime 1,639/100k
Hudson, IL : home $221,100, crime 115/100k
Elwood, IL : home $224,900, crime 913/100k
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 Mason City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Mason City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value7% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety81% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Illinois, Mason City ranks #141 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Mason City 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 Mason City near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mason City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mason City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#723 of 1,311
45th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#910 of 1,315
31st percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#434 of 1,335
67th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#566 of 1,336
57th 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
42nd percentile nationally for median household income · 81st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mason City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mason City'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 Mason City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$92,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 93% 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
Mason City's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#310 of 15,516
More affordable than 98% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#305 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.4×, Mason City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #310 of 15,516 and #305 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
$64,250Mason City, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mason City, 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 Mason City, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,094
Median Income
$64,250
Median Home Value
$92,200
Median Age
51.5
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
49.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
614.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
51.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
563.2
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
51.7°F
Annual Precipitation
39.3"
Annual Snowfall
12.9"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mason City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,068 residents
2021
2,030 residents
2022
2,011 residents
2023
1,988 residents
2024
1,971 residents
2025
1,956 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
Drive Alone
84.3%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
7.0%
Other
1.8%
Based on 862 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 Mason City. 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 Mason City 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 Mason City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mason City 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.