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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-NEW-ATHENS-IL · New Athens, IL 1,937 pop · income 37th 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 New Athens
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Athens on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tonopah · lowest
37,922
Tonopah · lowest
37,922 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #1
New Athens · this city
61,477
New Athens · this city
61,477 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #2
Royal Hawaiia… · near
61,477
Royal Hawaiia… · near
61,477 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #3
Medford · near
61,477
Medford · near
61,477 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #4
Holcombe · near
61,477
Holcombe · near
61,477 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #5
Stoddard · near
61,477
Stoddard · near
61,477 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #6
Caledonia · highest
114,167
Caledonia · highest
114,167 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 New Athens 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: 1,937.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Athens - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, New Athens places in the 37th percentile for household income and the 79th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
17th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
79th
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: New Athens, IL
New Athens is a small town in Illinois, home to 1,937 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. New Athens households earn a median of $61,477 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.0%. Home values in New Athens run a median of $118,100, and the median resident age is 41.7 years. 20.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.5% 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). New Athens reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 649.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not 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. 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 New Athens'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Athens, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
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
How far does income reach against housing in New Athens?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.0%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Athens?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Maple Park (1,939 residents, $106,250 income); Princeville (1,932 residents, $81,944 income); Hampton (1,946 residents, $86,679 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jeffersonville, KY (1,937 residents); Caledonia, MI (1,936 residents); Holden, MO (1,936 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 the FBI record say about safety in New Athens?
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 649.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 72% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for New Athens?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 20.2% 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.
Population change
Is New Athens 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 -98 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.0% 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
-5.0%
2025 estimate
1,854
2020 estimate
1,952
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in New Athens?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 88.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
2.2%
Drive alone
88.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 827 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 9.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
100.0 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
D
City profile score · New Athens, 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-
54 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
9.0%
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.
Household income F
$61,477
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
New Athens profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 83/100 (A-) · 54 /100k
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 9.0%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,477
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.2%
Where New Athens sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Athens'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 - New Athens highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
New Athens, IL (this city): home $118,100, crime 649/100k
Holden, MO : home $132,400, crime 959/100k
Seneca, MO : home $112,300, crime 1,773/100k
Maple Park, IL : home $265,000, crime 268/100k
Sesser, IL : home $79,800, crime 162/100k
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 New Athens compare to other US cities?
Where New Athens sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value17% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety79% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Illinois alone, New Athens ranks #151 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares New Athens 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 New Athens near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Athens ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Athens only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#796 of 1,311
39th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#665 of 1,315
49th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#533 of 1,335
60th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#574 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
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 79th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Athens's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Athens'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 New Athens's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$118,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 83% 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
New Athens's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,370 of 15,516
More affordable than 91% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,319 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.9×, New Athens sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,370 of 15,516 and #1,319 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
$61,477New Athens, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Athens, 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 New Athens, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,937
Median Income
$61,477
Median Home Value
$118,100
Median Age
41.7
Poverty Rate
9.0%
Labor force participation
55.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
649.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
54.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
594.9
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
New Athens's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,952 residents
2021
1,931 residents
2022
1,905 residents
2023
1,886 residents
2024
1,874 residents
2025
1,854 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
1
1
0
$0.2M
2021
1
1
0
$0.1M
2022
1
1
0
$0.1M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
88.6%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
2.2%
Based on 827 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 New Athens. 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 New Athens 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 New Athens sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Athens 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.