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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-METROPOLIS-IL · Metropolis, IL 5,898 pop · income 22nd pct · 4 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 Metropolis
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Metropolis on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Luverne · lowest
51,537
Luverne · lowest
51,537 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #1
New Holland · near
51,544
New Holland · near
51,544 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #2
Metropolis · this city
51,548
Metropolis · this city
51,548 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #3
Jackson · near
51,552
Jackson · near
51,552 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #4
Carrollton · near
51,553
Carrollton · near
51,553 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #5
Woolrich · near
51,556
Woolrich · near
51,556 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Bluff · highest
205,735
Lake Bluff · highest
205,735 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 Metropolis 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: 5,898.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Metropolis - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Metropolis places in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 44th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
7th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
44th
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: Metropolis, IL
Illinois's Metropolis is a small town, with 5,898 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $51,548 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 8.5%. Typical homes in Metropolis are valued around $93,700, and the median resident age is 46.3 years. About 14.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 7 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Low Activity). Metropolis reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1554.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Illinois at 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,063 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Illinois's average monthly utility costs around $240 (state average). 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 Metropolis'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to population change to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Metropolis, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Metropolis?
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 1554.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 32% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for Metropolis?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 14.4% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Metropolis?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Lakemoor (5,878 residents, $96,929 income); Willow Springs (5,871 residents, $103,429 income); Spring Grove (5,866 residents, $133,224 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Stroudsburg, PA (5,898 residents); Hempstead, TX (5,899 residents); Hidden Valley Lake, CA (5,896 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.
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Metropolis?
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.
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 Metropolis?
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 76.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.1%
Work from home
5.2%
Drive alone
76.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,288 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Metropolis?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.5%, 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.
Household income
$51,548
Home value
$93,700
Value / income
1.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Metropolis 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 -216 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 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
-3.6%
2025 estimate
5,727
2020 estimate
5,943
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
F
City profile score · Metropolis, IL
33/100
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 D
8.5%
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
279 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$51,548
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Metropolis profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.5%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Violent crime: 36/100 (F) · 279 /100k
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,548
Bachelor's+ share: 18/100 (F) · 14.4%
Where Metropolis sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Metropolis'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 - Metropolis highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Metropolis, IL (this city): home $93,700, crime 1,554/100k
Hempstead, TX : home $145,700, crime 1,936/100k
Old Tappan, NJ : home $910,600, crime 239/100k
Hudson, NY : home $324,400, crime 1,896/100k
Krum, TX : home $286,300, crime 493/100k
Lakemoor, IL : home $261,300, crime 1,439/100k
Willow Springs, IL : home $370,900, crime 390/100k
Spring Grove, IL : home $371,200, crime 416/100k
Bartonville, IL : home $128,000, crime 2,408/100k
Lake Bluff, IL : home $739,400, crime 871/100k
Peoria Heights, IL : home $118,000, crime 3,474/100k
How does Metropolis compare to other US cities?
Metropolis measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value7% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety44% 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: Metropolis ranks #316 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 Metropolis 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 Metropolis near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Metropolis ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Metropolis only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,067 of 1,311
19th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#894 of 1,315
32nd percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#559 of 1,335
58th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#855 of 1,336
36th 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 44th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Metropolis's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Metropolis'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 Metropolis's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$93,700Among 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
Metropolis's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,052 of 15,516
More affordable than 93% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,019 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.8×, Metropolis sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,052 of 15,516 and #1,019 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
$51,548Metropolis, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Metropolis, 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 Metropolis, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,898
Median Income
$51,548
Median Home Value
$93,700
Median Age
46.3
Poverty Rate
8.5%
Labor force participation
47.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1554.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
279.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1274.9
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Metropolis's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,943 residents
2021
5,888 residents
2022
5,862 residents
2023
5,814 residents
2024
5,768 residents
2025
5,727 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
25
0
25
$0.7M
2021
15
15
0
$0.5M
2022
3
1
2
$0.2M
2023
9
5
4
$0.6M
2024
7
7
0
$0.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.8%
Carpool
16.1%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
5.2%
Based on 2,288 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 Metropolis. 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 Metropolis 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 Metropolis sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Metropolis 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.