Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Crane 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: 257.
Crane has 257 residents in Indiana. Source: Census ACS.
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: Crane, IN
Crane is a small town in Indiana, home to 257 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The median resident age is 56.5 years. Educational attainment runs 5.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 30.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,096 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Indiana run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Crane workers runs 20.2 minutes, with 90.5% driving alone and 1.4% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 45.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Crane'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 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 Crane, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Crane growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.6% 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.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 90.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.2 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Crane?
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.
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Wall Lake (256 residents, $108,182 income); Brownsville (255 residents, $71,146 income); Shelby (259 residents, $54,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Buckner, AR (257 residents); Bethune, CO (257 residents); Bloomington, ID (257 residents). These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
F
City profile score · Crane, IN
28/100
3 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.
Poverty rate F
25.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Crane profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Poverty rate: 5/100 (F) · 25.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.6%
How does Crane compare to other US cities?
Here's how Crane stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
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 Crane 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 Crane near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Crane ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Crane only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#57 of 849
93rd percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#709 of 850
16th 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Crane in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)25.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)30.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
257
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
56.5
Poverty Rate
25.8%
Labor force participation
30.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.6%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Crane's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
166 residents
2021
166 residents
2022
166 residents
2023
166 residents
2024
166 residents
2025
165 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.2 minutes
Drive Alone
90.5%
Carpool
8.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
1.4%
Based on 74 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 Crane. 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 Crane 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 Crane sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Crane 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, 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.