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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-MERRILLVILLE-IN · Merrillville, IN 36,343 pop · income 43rd 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 Merrillville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Merrillville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Richmond · lowest
46,395
Richmond · lowest
46,395 median HH income
27.2% of the leader · rank #1
Merrillville · this city
64,791
Merrillville · this city
64,791 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #2
Hoopers Creek · near
64,792
Hoopers Creek · near
64,792 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #3
Pittsboro · near
64,792
Pittsboro · near
64,792 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #4
Laureldale · near
64,792
Laureldale · near
64,792 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #5
Yoe · near
64,792
Yoe · near
64,792 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #6
Commack · highest
170,375
Commack · highest
170,375 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 Merrillville 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: 36,343.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Merrillville lands in the 43rd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
43rd
percentile, household income
41st
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: Merrillville, IN
36,343 people live in Merrillville, Indiana - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Merrillville households earn a median of $64,791 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.5%. Home values in Merrillville run a median of $194,000, and the median resident age is 41.3 years. About 25.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 245 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 182% from five years earlier.
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. 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. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 45.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Merrillville'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Merrillville, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Merrillville?
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 Plainfield (35,783 residents, $85,074 income); Richmond (35,551 residents, $46,395 income); New Albany (37,589 residents, $54,152 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Commack, NY (36,353 residents); Upper Arlington, OH (36,319 residents); Woodstock, GA (36,297 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Merrillville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.4%. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Merrillville?
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 9 public schools within the city match. 25.2% 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.
Is Merrillville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +945 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 245 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Merrillville?
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 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.0×
Home value
$194,000
Household income
$64,791
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 11.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
D
City profile score · Merrillville, IN
49/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share D
25.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$64,791
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.5%
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).
Merrillville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 49/100 (D) · 25.2%
Household income: 42/100 (D) · $64,791
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.5%
How does Merrillville compare to other US cities?
Merrillville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income43% higher than other cities
Home value41% 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 Merrillville 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 Merrillville near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Merrillville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Merrillville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#332 of 766
57th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#184 of 771
76th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#253 of 849
70th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#195 of 850
77th 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
43rd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Merrillville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$194,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Merrillville's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,657 of 15,516
More affordable than 57% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#891 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Merrillville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,657 of 15,516 and #891 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
$64,791Merrillville, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Merrillville, 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 Merrillville, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
36,343
Median Income
$64,791
Median Home Value
$194,000
Median Age
41.3
Poverty Rate
11.5%
Labor force participation
57.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.2%
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Merrillville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
36,462 residents
2021
36,396 residents
2022
36,239 residents
2023
36,339 residents
2024
36,973 residents
2025
37,407 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
245
housing units authorized
Single-Family
245
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
87
57
30
$13.8M
2020
87
67
20
$13.8M
2021
38
38
0
$7.9M
2022
117
57
60
$18.6M
2023
305
95
210
$34.0M
2024
245
245
0
$40.3M
Permit volume increased 182% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.4%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
8.3%
Other
2.4%
Based on 16,773 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 Merrillville. 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 Merrillville 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 Merrillville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Merrillville 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, 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.