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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-NEW-CASTLE-IN · New Castle, IN 17,356 pop · income 18th pct · 13 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 New Castle
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Castle on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Logansport · lowest
46,363
Logansport · lowest
46,363 median HH income
39.8% of the leader · rank #1
West Milwaukee · near
48,976
West Milwaukee · near
48,976 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #2
New Castle · this city
48,977
New Castle · this city
48,977 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #3
Littleville · near
48,977
Littleville · near
48,977 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #4
Belgrade · near
48,977
Belgrade · near
48,977 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #5
Hatteras · near
48,980
Hatteras · near
48,980 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #6
Royse City · highest
116,424
Royse City · highest
116,424 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 New Castle 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: 17,356.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Castle - the verdict
New Castle ranks in the 18th percentile for household income and the 72nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
18th
percentile, household income
8th
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
72nd
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: New Castle, IN
Indiana's New Castle is a small town, with 17,356 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. New Castle households earn a median of $48,977 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.8%. New Castle's housing stock carries a median value of $95,100, and the median resident age is 41.1 years. Educational attainment runs 13.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 54.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 14 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 180% from five years earlier. New Castle reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 809.0 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 New Castle's yearly average temperature at 50.4°F with 44.4 inches of precipitation per year and 24.8 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,096 per month statewide. 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 New Castle'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 reported crime to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Castle, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in New Castle?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 809.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 65% 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.
Is New Castle growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 14 housing units authorized in 2024. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Castle?
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 Lebanon (17,575 residents, $63,773 income); Huntington (17,026 residents, $51,220 income); Logansport (17,766 residents, $46,363 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Royse City, TX (17,357 residents); Firestone, CO (17,353 residents); Coalinga, CA (17,352 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 can 13 Census tracts reveal inside New Castle?
PlainCities matches 13 Census tracts to this city.
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.
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 New Castle?
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.
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 14.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
1.9×
Home value
$95,100
Household income
$48,977
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the education layer cover for New Castle?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 13.9% 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
14.8%
Bachelor's degree+
13.9%
Matched public schools
10
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What physical conditions frame life in New Castle?
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 50.4°F, with 44.4 inches of precipitation and 24.8 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
45.5
Annual precipitation
44.4 in
Mean temperature
50.4°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in New Castle?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.6%. 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.
Drive alone
76.6%
Work from home
7.4%
Public transit
0.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,610 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
D
City profile score · New Castle, IN
42/100
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 B+
75 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Poverty rate F
14.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,977
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
New Castle profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 77/100 (B+) · 75 /100k
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.8%
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $48,977
Bachelor's+ share: 17/100 (F) · 13.9%
Where New Castle sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Castle'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 - New Castle highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
New Castle, IN (this city): home $95,100, crime 809/100k
Royse City, TX : home $288,400, crime 1,002/100k
Firestone, CO : home $511,800, crime 1,105/100k
Coalinga, CA : home $254,600, crime 902/100k
Laguna Woods, CA : home $364,900, crime 953/100k
Rancho Mirage, CA : home $747,800, crime 2,581/100k
Lebanon, IN : home $179,200, crime 1,296/100k
Huntington, IN : home $104,300, crime 395/100k
Logansport, IN : home $84,600, crime 1,286/100k
Vincennes, IN : home $98,700, crime 2,631/100k
Warsaw, IN : home $175,300, crime 2,174/100k
Jasper, IN : home $203,300, crime 726/100k
How does New Castle compare to other US cities?
Here's how New Castle 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 value8% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety72% 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, New Castle ranks #39 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 New Castle 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 New Castle near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Castle ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Castle only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#617 of 766
19th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#614 of 771
20th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#163 of 849
80th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#456 of 850
46th 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 · 72nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Castle's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Castle'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 New Castle's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$95,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 92% 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
New Castle's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,446 of 15,516
More affordable than 91% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#52 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.9×, New Castle sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,446 of 15,516 and #52 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
$48,977New Castle, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Castle, 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 New Castle, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,356
Median Income
$48,977
Median Home Value
$95,100
Median Age
41.1
Poverty Rate
14.8%
Labor force participation
54.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
809.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
75.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
733.8
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
50.4°F
Annual Precipitation
44.4"
Annual Snowfall
24.8"
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Castle's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,394 residents
2021
17,421 residents
2022
17,315 residents
2023
17,362 residents
2024
17,379 residents
2025
17,390 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
14
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$0.3M
2020
13
13
0
$1.2M
2021
3
3
0
$0.6M
2022
4
4
0
$0.5M
2023
14
14
0
$3.7M
2024
14
10
4
$2.1M
Permit volume increased 180% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.6%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
7.4%
Other
1.4%
Based on 7,610 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 New Castle. 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 New Castle 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 New Castle sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Castle 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.