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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-URBANA-IL · Urbana, IL 38,447 pop · income 14th 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 Urbana
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Urbana on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Atlantic City · lowest
36,220
Atlantic City · lowest
36,220 median HH income
26.2% of the leader · rank #1
Valdosta · near
45,849
Valdosta · near
45,849 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #2
London · near
45,850
London · near
45,850 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #3
Amite City · near
45,850
Amite City · near
45,850 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #4
Wadena · near
45,850
Wadena · near
45,850 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #5
Urbana · this city
45,854
Urbana · this city
45,854 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #6
Park Ridge · highest
138,059
Park Ridge · highest
138,059 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 Urbana 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: 38,447.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Urbana - the verdict
Nationally, Urbana sits in the 14th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
39th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Urbana, IL
Urbana is a small city in Illinois, home to 38,447 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Urbana report a median income of $45,854 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.1%. Home values in Urbana run a median of $186,300, and the median resident age is 26.7 years. Educational attainment runs 58.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 55 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 90% from five years earlier. Urbana's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3036.3 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Illinois at 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,063 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Urbana report an average commute of 12.2 minutes, with 51.8% driving alone and 14.6% working from home. 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 Urbana'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Urbana, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
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 Urbana?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3036.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Urbana?
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 Wheeling (38,495 residents, $83,251 income); Streamwood (39,055 residents, $101,049 income); Quincy (39,188 residents, $56,372 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Winter Springs, FL (38,448 residents); Mechanicsville, VA (38,437 residents); Calexico, CA (38,476 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Urbana?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 51.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 12.2 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Urbana?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Urbana growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +857 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 55 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.
2020 estimate
38,862
2025 estimate
39,719
Period change
+2.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 10 public schools within the city match. 58.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.1%
Bachelor's degree+
58.4%
Matched public schools
10
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
F
City profile score · Urbana, IL
35/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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
11.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$45,854
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
544 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Urbana profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.4%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.1%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,854
Violent crime: 13/100 (F) · 544 /100k
Where Urbana sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Urbana'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 - Urbana highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Urbana, IL (this city): home $186,300, crime 3,036/100k
Calexico, CA : home $281,700, crime 682/100k
Phenix City, AL : home $160,000, crime 4,248/100k
Atlantic City, NJ : home $189,600, crime 8,017/100k
Westerville, OH : home $343,200, crime 1,947/100k
Wheeling, IL : home $244,600, crime 969/100k
Streamwood, IL : home $258,300, crime 835/100k
Park Ridge, IL : home $539,300, crime 944/100k
Carpentersville, IL : home $225,200, crime 891/100k
Carol Stream, IL : home $308,700, crime 780/100k
How does Urbana compare to other US cities?
Urbana measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value39% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety15% 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, Urbana ranks #413 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 Urbana 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 Urbana near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Urbana ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Urbana only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,177 of 1,311
10th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#385 of 1,315
71st percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#406 of 1,335
69th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#74 of 1,336
94th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Urbana's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Urbana'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 Urbana's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$186,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 61% 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
Urbana's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,883 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,041 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.1×, Urbana sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,883 of 15,516 and #2,041 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$45,854Urbana, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Urbana, 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 Urbana, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
38,447
Median Income
$45,854
Median Home Value
$186,300
Median Age
26.7
Poverty Rate
11.1%
Labor force participation
55.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3036.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
544.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2491.9
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
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Urbana's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
38,862 residents
2021
39,136 residents
2022
39,603 residents
2023
39,631 residents
2024
39,684 residents
2025
39,719 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
55
housing units authorized
Single-Family
51
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
29
22
7
$5.5M
2020
422
22
400
$40.5M
2021
58
58
0
$14.3M
2022
114
66
48
$18.9M
2023
83
63
20
$13.0M
2024
55
51
4
$13.7M
Permit volume increased 90% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
12.2 minutes
Drive Alone
51.8%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
7.1%
Walk
14.7%
Work from Home
14.6%
Other
4.9%
Based on 18,733 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 Urbana. 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 Urbana 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 Urbana sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Urbana 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.