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Place dossier plate
SheetIN-WHITING-IN · Whiting, IN 4,554 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 Whiting
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Whiting on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Waynesboro · lowest
30,910
Waynesboro · lowest
30,910 median HH income
21.6% of the leader · rank #1
Worthington · near
65,432
Worthington · near
65,432 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #2
Whiting · this city
65,433
Whiting · this city
65,433 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #3
Peshtigo · near
65,433
Peshtigo · near
65,433 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #4
Staunton · near
65,435
Staunton · near
65,435 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #5
Emsworth · near
65,435
Emsworth · near
65,435 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #6
Floyds Knobs · highest
143,088
Floyds Knobs · highest
143,088 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 Whiting 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: 4,554.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Whiting - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Whiting places in the 43rd percentile for household income and the 32nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
43rd
percentile, household income
44th
percentile, home value
27th
percentile, median rent
32nd
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: Whiting, IN
Indiana's Whiting is a small town, with 4,554 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $65,433 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 20.1%. Typical homes in Whiting are valued around $204,800, and the median resident age is 34.3 years. About 16.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 55.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 5 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 84% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2006.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,096 monthly. 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 Whiting'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 housing and income to reported crime to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Whiting, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Whiting?
Within Indiana, the closest population matches are Floyds Knobs (4,557 residents, $143,088 income); Bremen (4,660 residents, $54,375 income); North Terre Haute (4,396 residents, $54,246 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ada, OH (4,553 residents); Newton Falls, OH (4,553 residents); Clintonville, WI (4,553 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Whiting?
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 76.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Whiting?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.1%, 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Whiting?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2006.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 12% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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 Whiting growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -93 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-2.0%
2025 estimate
4,479
2020 estimate
4,572
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 16.6% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
16.6%
Poverty estimate
20.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 20.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
93.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Indiana average
F
City profile score · Whiting, IN
36/100
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.
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 D
$65,433
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
357 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Whiting profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 72/100 (B) · 93.3 index
Household income: 43/100 (D) · $65,433
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 357 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.6%
Poverty rate: 13/100 (F) · 20.1%
Where Whiting sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Whiting'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 - Whiting highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Whiting, IN (this city): home $204,800, crime 2,007/100k
Ada, OH : home $150,700, crime 812/100k
Cortland, IL : home $203,700, crime 509/100k
Waynesboro, MS : home $84,400, crime 2,566/100k
Ranlo, NC : home $184,500, crime 1,082/100k
Whiteland, IN : home $189,200, crime 877/100k
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 Whiting compare to other US cities?
Whiting 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 value44% pricier than other cities
Median rent27% pricier than other cities
Safety32% 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: Whiting ranks #82 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 Whiting 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 Whiting near the bottom of Indiana's cities
Among the 850 Indiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Whiting ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Whiting only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#325 of 766
58th percentile in Indiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 850
0th percentile in Indiana
Median Home Value
#163 of 771
79th percentile in Indiana
Poverty Rate
#87 of 849
90th percentile in Indiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#375 of 850
56th 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 · 32nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Whiting's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Whiting'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 Whiting's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$204,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 56% 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
Whiting's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,342 of 15,516
More affordable than 53% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,106 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.1×, Whiting sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,342 of 15,516 and #6,106 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$65,433Whiting, IN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Whiting, 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 Whiting, IN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,554
Median Income
$65,433
Median Home Value
$204,800
Median Age
34.3
Poverty Rate
20.1%
Labor force participation
55.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2006.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
356.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1649.9
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Whiting's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,572 residents
2021
4,570 residents
2022
4,534 residents
2023
4,504 residents
2024
4,492 residents
2025
4,479 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
32
0
32
$4.9M
2020
15
3
12
$2.4M
2021
2
2
0
$0.5M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
5
5
0
$1.6M
Permit volume decreased 84% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.9%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
4.3%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
9.1%
Other
1.1%
Based on 1,947 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 Whiting. 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 Whiting 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 Whiting sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Whiting 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.