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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-BLOOMINGTON-IN · Bloomington, IN 78,791 pop · income 18th pct · 33 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 Bloomington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bloomington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Gary · lowest
37,380
Gary · lowest
37,380 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #1
Las Animas · near
48,917
Las Animas · near
48,917 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #2
Bloomington · this city
48,918
Bloomington · this city
48,918 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #3
Kettleman · near
48,920
Kettleman · near
48,920 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #4
Mantua · near
48,920
Mantua · near
48,920 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #5
Monte Rio · near
48,922
Monte Rio · near
48,922 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #6
Tustin · highest
108,435
Tustin · highest
108,435 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 Bloomington 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: 78,791.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bloomington - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Bloomington places in the 18th percentile for household income and the 16th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
18th
percentile, household income
63rd
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
16th
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: Bloomington, IN
78,791 people live in Bloomington, Indiana - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Bloomington report a median income of $48,918 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.0%. Typical homes in Bloomington are valued around $289,700, and the median resident age is 24.9 years. 60.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Bloomington's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3005.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Indiana run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Indiana scores 93.3 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,096 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Indiana, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 14.1 minutes, with 56.6% driving alone and 16.9% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 45.5 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bloomington'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to within-city variation to population change to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bloomington, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Bloomington?
The NCES join finds 26 public schools within the city match. 60.0% 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 Bloomington?
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Hammond (77,098 residents, $53,950 income); Noblesville (71,940 residents, $102,319 income); Lafayette (70,650 residents, $52,946 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Georgetown, TX (78,803 residents); Napa, CA (78,816 residents); Auburn, AL (78,738 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 Bloomington?
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 3005.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 32% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 33 Census tracts reveal inside Bloomington?
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.
PlainCities matches 33 Census tracts to this city.
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 Bloomington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,230 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+4.0%
2025 estimate
83,307
2020 estimate
80,077
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Bloomington?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.0%, 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. 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.
Household income
$48,918
Home value
$289,700
Value / income
5.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Bloomington?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 56.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.1 minutes.
Public transit
3.7%
Work from home
16.9%
Drive alone
56.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 37,713 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
D
City profile score · Bloomington, IN
46/100
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+
60.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living B
93.3 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
287 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
13.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,918
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bloomington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 92/100 (A+) · 60.0%
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Violent crime: 35/100 (F) · 287 /100k
Poverty rate: 28/100 (F) · 13.0%
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $48,918
Where Bloomington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bloomington'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 - Bloomington highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Bloomington, IN (this city): home $289,700, crime 3,005/100k
Georgetown, TX : home $398,600, crime 1,361/100k
Napa, CA : home $824,500, crime 1,671/100k
Auburn, AL : home $342,400, crime 1,087/100k
Upland, CA : home $688,800, crime 2,163/100k
Tustin, CA : home $890,600, crime 2,316/100k
Hammond, IN : home $141,700, crime 3,814/100k
Noblesville, IN : home $321,800, crime 622/100k
Lafayette, IN : home $157,600, crime 2,642/100k
Muncie, IN : home $92,000, crime 2,860/100k
Greenwood, IN : home $248,700, crime 1,638/100k
How does Bloomington compare to other US cities?
Here's how Bloomington stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income18% higher than other cities
Home value63% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety16% 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 Indiana, Bloomington ranks #103 of 110 Indiana 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 Bloomington against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Indiana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Indiana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bloomington near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bloomington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bloomington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#620 of 766
19th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#50 of 771
93rd percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#200 of 849
76th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#20 of 850
98th percentile in Indiana
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 Indiana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
18th percentile nationally for median household income · 16th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bloomington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bloomington'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 Bloomington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$289,70037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Bloomington's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,042 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#568 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.9×, Bloomington sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,042 of 15,516 and #568 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$48,918Bloomington, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bloomington, IN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bloomington, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)60.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.0%
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
78,791
Median Income
$48,918
Median Home Value
$289,700
Median Age
24.9
Poverty Rate
13.0%
Labor force participation
55.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
60.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3005.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
286.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2718.3
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
26
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bloomington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
80,077 residents
2021
83,846 residents
2022
83,885 residents
2023
83,099 residents
2024
82,580 residents
2025
83,307 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.1 minutes
Drive Alone
56.6%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
3.7%
Walk
11.0%
Work from Home
16.9%
Other
2.9%
Based on 37,713 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Indiana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Indiana at $235 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Indiana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bloomington. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Indiana's BEA cost-of-living index is 93.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bloomington is $1,096/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Indiana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 45.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Indiana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bloomington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bloomington compares to similar-size Indiana 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.