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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-VANDALIA-IL · Vandalia, IL 6,041 pop · income 11th pct · 7 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 Vandalia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Vandalia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Kiryas Joel · lowest
43,171
Kiryas Joel · lowest
43,171 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #1
Menard · near
43,179
Menard · near
43,179 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #2
Bloomfield · near
43,182
Bloomfield · near
43,182 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #3
Vandalia · this city
43,184
Vandalia · this city
43,184 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #4
Huxley · near
43,188
Huxley · near
43,188 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #5
Brownfield · near
43,189
Brownfield · near
43,189 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #6
Mount Zion · highest
110,786
Mount Zion · highest
110,786 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 Vandalia 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: 6,041.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Vandalia - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Vandalia places in the 11th percentile for household income and the 55th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
11th
percentile, household income
6th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
55th
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: Vandalia, IL
6,041 people live in Vandalia, Illinois - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Vandalia report a median income of $43,184 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.8%. Typical homes in Vandalia are valued around $88,800, and the median resident age is 42.9 years. About 10.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 39.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Vandalia (Construction Slowdown), down 67% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Vandalia reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1228.3 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 54.2°F with 43.7 inches of precipitation per year.
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 100.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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 Vandalia'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 reported crime to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Vandalia, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Vandalia?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.8%, 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 Vandalia?
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 1228.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 46% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Vandalia?
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Beardstown (6,047 residents, $58,765 income); Elburn (6,054 residents, $106,506 income); Mount Zion (6,076 residents, $110,786 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Moores Mill, AL (6,041 residents); Kingston, TN (6,042 residents); Swannanoa, NC (6,043 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.
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.
Population change
Is Vandalia 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 -326 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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
-4.4%
2025 estimate
7,108
2020 estimate
7,434
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 10.9% 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.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
10.9%
Poverty estimate
17.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Vandalia?
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 83.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.2%
Work from home
5.2%
Drive alone
83.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,068 workers age 16+.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.2°F, with 43.7 inches of precipitation. 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
54.2°F
Annual precipitation
43.7 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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
F
City profile score · Vandalia, 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.
Violent crime A
41 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Poverty rate F
17.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$43,184
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Vandalia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 86/100 (A) · 41 /100k
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 17.8%
Household income: 11/100 (F) · $43,184
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 10.9%
Where Vandalia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Vandalia'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 - Vandalia highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Vandalia, IL (this city): home $88,800, crime 1,228/100k
Kingston, TN : home $204,200, crime 428/100k
Pevely, MO : home $203,700, crime 1,335/100k
Elburn, IL : home $358,200, crime 584/100k
Mount Zion, IL : home $200,300, crime 566/100k
Pontoon Beach, IL : home $137,900, crime 1,953/100k
Braidwood, IL : home $205,900, crime 454/100k
Metropolis, IL : home $93,700, crime 1,554/100k
How does Vandalia compare to other US cities?
Where Vandalia sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income11% higher than other cities
Home value6% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety55% 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: Vandalia ranks #281 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 Vandalia 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 Vandalia near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Vandalia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Vandalia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,214 of 1,311
7th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#952 of 1,315
27th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#163 of 1,335
87th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,042 of 1,336
22nd 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
11th percentile nationally for median household income · 55th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Vandalia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Vandalia'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 Vandalia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$88,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 94% 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
Vandalia's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,847 of 15,516
More affordable than 88% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,758 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Vandalia sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,847 of 15,516 and #1,758 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
$43,184Vandalia, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Vandalia, 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 Vandalia, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)39.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,041
Median Income
$43,184
Median Home Value
$88,800
Median Age
42.9
Poverty Rate
17.8%
Labor force participation
39.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1228.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
40.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1187.4
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
54.2°F
Annual Precipitation
43.7"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
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
Vandalia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,434 residents
2021
7,047 residents
2022
7,204 residents
2023
7,191 residents
2024
7,166 residents
2025
7,108 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.9M
2020
2
2
0
$0.7M
2021
3
1
2
$0.5M
2022
5
3
2
$1.0M
2023
3
3
0
$1.0M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.6%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
3.5%
Work from Home
5.2%
Other
1.8%
Based on 2,068 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 Vandalia. 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 Vandalia 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 Vandalia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Vandalia 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.