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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-BOSWELL-IN · Boswell, IN 703 pop · income 18th 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 Boswell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Boswell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Shoals · lowest
43,304
Shoals · lowest
43,304 median HH income
53.7% of the leader · rank #1
Boswell · this city
49,091
Boswell · this city
49,091 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #2
Lexington · near
49,091
Lexington · near
49,091 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #3
Ovid · near
49,094
Ovid · near
49,094 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #4
Monsey · near
49,095
Monsey · near
49,095 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #5
Bloomsburg · near
49,096
Bloomsburg · near
49,096 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #6
Matherville · highest
80,714
Matherville · highest
80,714 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Boswell on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 703.
Boswell ranks in the 18th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
18th
percentile, household income
7th
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Boswell, IN
Boswell is a small town in Indiana, home to 703 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Boswell report a median income of $49,091 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 26.6%. Boswell's housing stock carries a median value of $92,400, and the median resident age is 37.4 years. About 10.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Boswell's yearly average temperature at 49.8°F with 40.2 inches of precipitation per year and 17.1 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Indiana run below the national norm: the state registers 93.3 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. 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 Boswell'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 climate and hazard context to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Boswell, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, 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 Boswell?
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 26.6%, 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.8°F, with 40.2 inches of precipitation and 17.1 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Indiana is 45.5 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.
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 +14 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Boswell?
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Cromwell (703 residents, $48,500 income); Clarks Hill (706 residents, $45,875 income); Shoals (700 residents, $43,304 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Matherville, IL (703 residents); Dighton, KS (703 residents); Greensburg, KS (703 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.
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 Boswell?
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 73.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
9.6%
Work from home
3.8%
Drive alone
73.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 312 workers age 16+.
Low income · poverty 26.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
F
City profile score · Boswell, IN
27/100
4 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.
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.
Household income F
$49,091
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.
Poverty rate F
26.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Boswell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $49,091
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 10.9%
Poverty rate: 4/100 (F) · 26.6%
How does Boswell compare to other US cities?
Here's how Boswell 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 value7% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Boswell 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 Boswell near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Boswell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Boswell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#614 of 766
20th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#633 of 771
18th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#54 of 849
94th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#557 of 850
34th 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Boswell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$92,400Among 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
Boswell's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,243 of 15,516
More affordable than 92% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,198 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.9×, Boswell sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,243 of 15,516 and #1,198 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
$49,091Boswell, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Boswell, 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 Boswell, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)26.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
703
Median Income
$49,091
Median Home Value
$92,400
Median Age
37.4
Poverty Rate
26.6%
Labor force participation
59.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.9%
Climate
Avg Temperature
49.8°F
Annual Precipitation
40.2"
Annual Snowfall
17.1"
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Boswell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
798 residents
2021
794 residents
2022
794 residents
2023
802 residents
2024
813 residents
2025
812 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.1%
Carpool
10.9%
Public Transit
9.6%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
3.8%
Other
1.6%
Based on 312 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 Boswell. 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 Boswell 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 Boswell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Boswell 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.