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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-SHOALS-IN · Shoals, IN 700 pop · income 11th 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 Shoals
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Shoals on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Wickliffe · lowest
38,125
Wickliffe · lowest
38,125 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #1
Verona · near
43,295
Verona · near
43,295 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #2
Shoals · this city
43,304
Shoals · this city
43,304 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #3
Butler · near
43,309
Butler · near
43,309 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #4
Doniphan · near
43,309
Doniphan · near
43,309 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #5
Raeford · near
43,311
Raeford · near
43,311 median HH income
48.2% of the leader · rank #6
Oneida Castle · highest
89,792
Oneida Castle · highest
89,792 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 Shoals 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: 700.
Shoals ranks in the 11th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
11th
percentile, household income
15th
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: Shoals, IN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 700 residents in Shoals, a small town within Indiana. Shoals households earn a median of $43,304 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.0%. Shoals's housing stock carries a median value of $114,300, and the median resident age is 48.6 years. 12.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 54.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 55.6°F with 50.0 inches of precipitation per year and 13.6 inches of snowfall.
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. 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 Shoals'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 work and mobility to population change to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Shoals, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Shoals?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 55.6°F, with 50.0 inches of precipitation and 13.6 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Shoals?
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Boswell (703 residents, $49,091 income); Cromwell (703 residents, $48,500 income); Clarks Hill (706 residents, $45,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Noatak, AK (700 residents); Green Valley, IL (700 residents); Wickliffe, KY (700 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.
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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Shoals?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 12.8% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
12.8%
Poverty estimate
14.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Shoals?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$43,304
Home value
$114,300
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
F
City profile score · Shoals, IN
30/100
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.
Poverty rate F
14.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$43,304
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Shoals profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.8%
Household income: 11/100 (F) · $43,304
How does Shoals compare to other US cities?
Here's how Shoals stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income11% higher than other cities
Home value15% 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 Shoals 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 Shoals near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Shoals ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Shoals only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#705 of 766
8th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#496 of 771
36th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#183 of 849
78th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#494 of 850
42nd 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
11th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Shoals's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$114,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 85% 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
Shoals's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,721 of 15,516
More affordable than 70% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,176 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Shoals sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,721 of 15,516 and #4,176 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
$43,304Shoals, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Shoals, 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 Shoals, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
700
Median Income
$43,304
Median Home Value
$114,300
Median Age
48.6
Poverty Rate
14.0%
Labor force participation
54.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.8%
Climate
Avg Temperature
55.6°F
Annual Precipitation
50.0"
Annual Snowfall
13.6"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Shoals's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
680 residents
2021
680 residents
2022
679 residents
2023
680 residents
2024
681 residents
2025
677 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.3%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.2%
Work from Home
2.1%
Other
3.4%
Based on 332 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 Shoals. 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 Shoals 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 Shoals sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Shoals 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, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, 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.