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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-PENDLETON-IN · Pendleton, IN 5,115 pop · income 69th 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 Pendleton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pendleton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Linton · lowest
41,968
Linton · lowest
41,968 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #1
Westminster · near
87,955
Westminster · near
87,955 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #2
Grayson · near
87,961
Grayson · near
87,961 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #3
Pendleton · this city
87,971
Pendleton · this city
87,971 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #4
Gardnerville… · near
87,971
Gardnerville… · near
87,971 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #5
Defiance · near
87,986
Defiance · near
87,986 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #6
Middletown · highest
159,342
Middletown · highest
159,342 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 Pendleton 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: 5,115.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Pendleton - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Pendleton lands in the 69th percentile for household income and the 98th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
69th
percentile, household income
52nd
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
98th
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: Pendleton, IN
Pendleton is a small town in Indiana, home to 5,115 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Pendleton households earn a median of $87,971 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Pendleton are valued around $236,200, and the median resident age is 39.0 years. 37.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 66 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 340% from five years earlier. Pendleton reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 84.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. 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. The average commute for Pendleton workers runs 17.8 minutes, with 72.1% driving alone and 18.9% 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 Pendleton'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 schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pendleton, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
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. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Pendleton?
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 6 public schools within the city match. 37.5% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Pendleton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 84.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 96% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Pendleton?
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 Fortville (5,092 residents, $82,763 income); Alexandria (5,145 residents, $60,616 income); Linton (5,153 residents, $41,968 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fussels Corner, FL (5,113 residents); Social Circle, GA (5,113 residents); Terryville, CT (5,112 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.
Is Pendleton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,198 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +25.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 66 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Pendleton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.8 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
72.1%
Work from home
18.9%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,760 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Pendleton?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.7×
Home value
$236,200
Household income
$87,971
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
B+
City profile score · Pendleton, IN
75/100
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
34 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
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.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$87,971
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Pendleton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 88/100 (A) · 34 /100k
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.5%
Household income: 67/100 (B-) · $87,971
Where Pendleton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Pendleton'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 - Pendleton highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Pendleton, IN (this city): home $236,200, crime 84/100k
Glenwood, IA : home $193,800, crime 728/100k
Pleasant View, TN : home $362,700, crime 333/100k
Linton, IN : home $86,800, crime 2,129/100k
Winona Lake, IN : home $242,400, crime 372/100k
Porter, IN : home $259,700, crime 211/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Pendleton compare to other US cities?
Where Pendleton sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income69% higher than other cities
Home value52% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety98% 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: Pendleton ranks #1 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 Pendleton 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 Pendleton near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pendleton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pendleton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#125 of 766
84th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#109 of 771
86th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#557 of 849
34th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#92 of 850
89th 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
69th percentile nationally for median household income · 98th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Pendleton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Pendleton'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 Pendleton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$236,20048th percentilemore affordable than 48% 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
Pendleton's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,958 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,362 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Pendleton sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,958 of 15,516 and #4,362 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
$87,971Pendleton, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pendleton, 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 Pendleton, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,115
Median Income
$87,971
Median Home Value
$236,200
Median Age
39.0
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
69.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
84.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
33.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
50.6
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.
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pendleton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,732 residents
2021
4,858 residents
2022
5,173 residents
2023
5,619 residents
2024
5,753 residents
2025
5,930 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
66
housing units authorized
Single-Family
66
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
12.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
15
9
6
$4.3M
2020
59
59
0
$18.3M
2021
151
145
6
$42.2M
2022
193
193
0
$56.3M
2023
45
45
0
$12.2M
2024
66
66
0
$23.2M
Permit volume increased 340% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.8 minutes
Drive Alone
72.1%
Carpool
7.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
18.9%
Based on 2,760 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 Pendleton. 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 Pendleton 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 Pendleton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pendleton 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, 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.