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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-LOWELL-IN · Lowell, IN 10,911 pop · income 65th 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 Lowell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lowell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Peru · lowest
46,180
Peru · lowest
46,180 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #1
Lowell · this city
83,125
Lowell · this city
83,125 median HH income
69.9% of the leader · rank #2
Fostoria · near
83,125
Fostoria · near
83,125 median HH income
69.9% of the leader · rank #3
Lisbon · near
83,125
Lisbon · near
83,125 median HH income
69.9% of the leader · rank #4
Ventura · near
83,125
Ventura · near
83,125 median HH income
69.9% of the leader · rank #5
Vincent · near
83,125
Vincent · near
83,125 median HH income
69.9% of the leader · rank #6
Lincoln Park · highest
119,000
Lincoln Park · highest
119,000 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 Lowell 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: 10,911.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lowell - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lowell lands in the 65th percentile for household income and the 95th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
53rd
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
95th
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: Lowell, IN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 10,911 residents in Lowell, a small town within Indiana. The typical household in Lowell brings in $83,125 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.2%. Home values in Lowell run a median of $236,900, and the median resident age is 39.1 years. 22.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 190 residential building permits were authorized in Lowell (Building Boom), up 102% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Lowell reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 227.6 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). NOAA puts Lowell's yearly average temperature at 49.7°F with 39.9 inches of precipitation per year and 29.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Indiana run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Indiana at 93.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). 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. 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 Lowell'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to population change to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lowell, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Lowell?
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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Lowell?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lowell?
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 Indiana, the closest population matches are Huntertown (10,984 residents, $104,808 income); Peru (10,835 residents, $46,180 income); Danville (11,049 residents, $93,080 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are White, OR (10,913 residents); Totowa, NJ (10,919 residents); Fife, WA (10,902 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.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.7°F, with 39.9 inches of precipitation and 29.7 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.
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 Lowell growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,153 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 190 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
10,700
2025 estimate
11,853
Period change
+10.8%
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 5 public schools within the city match. 22.1% 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
3.2%
Bachelor's degree+
22.1%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lowell?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 227.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 90% lower 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.
Total reported rate
227.6
Violent rate
26.3
Property rate
201.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
B-
City profile score · Lowell, IN
69/100
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+
26 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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 C+
$83,125
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Lowell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 90/100 (A+) · 26 /100k
Poverty rate: 77/100 (B+) · 3.2%
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Household income: 62/100 (C+) · $83,125
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 22.1%
Where Lowell sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lowell'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 - Lowell highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Lowell, IN (this city): home $236,900, crime 228/100k
Totowa, NJ : home $507,700, crime 2,047/100k
Fife, WA : home $480,600, crime 6,936/100k
Lincoln Park, NJ : home $419,500, crime 624/100k
Summit, IL : home $224,800, crime 1,999/100k
Troy, IL : home $240,800, crime 469/100k
Danville, IN : home $269,400, crime 812/100k
Whitestown, IN : home $343,900, crime 1,518/100k
Bluffton, IN : home $136,800, crime 913/100k
How does Lowell compare to other US cities?
Lowell measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value53% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety95% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Indiana and the picture shifts: Lowell ranks #6 of 110 Indiana cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lowell 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 Lowell near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lowell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lowell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#158 of 766
79th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#107 of 771
86th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#566 of 849
33rd percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#247 of 850
71st 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 95th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lowell's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lowell'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 Lowell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$236,90047th percentilemore affordable than 47% 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
Lowell's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,860 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#703 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Lowell sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,860 of 15,516 and #703 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$83,125Lowell, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lowell, 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 Lowell, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,911
Median Income
$83,125
Median Home Value
$236,900
Median Age
39.1
Poverty Rate
3.2%
Labor force participation
62.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
227.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
26.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
201.4
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
49.7°F
Annual Precipitation
39.9"
Annual Snowfall
29.7"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lowell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,700 residents
2021
10,931 residents
2022
11,115 residents
2023
11,214 residents
2024
11,431 residents
2025
11,853 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
190
housing units authorized
Single-Family
190
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
17.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
94
94
0
$26.9M
2020
124
124
0
$37.3M
2021
110
110
0
$37.2M
2022
67
67
0
$23.7M
2023
95
95
0
$37.5M
2024
190
190
0
$75.3M
Permit volume increased 102% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.8%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
7.7%
Other
0.6%
Based on 5,144 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 Lowell. 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 Lowell 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 Lowell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lowell 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, 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.