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Place dossier plate
SheetKS-BALDWIN-CITY-KS · Baldwin City, KS 4,881 pop · income 63rd 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 Baldwin City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Baldwin City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Farmington · lowest
39,646
Farmington · lowest
39,646 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #1
Kalaeloa · near
81,833
Kalaeloa · near
81,833 median HH income
60.7% of the leader · rank #2
South Beloit · near
81,836
South Beloit · near
81,836 median HH income
60.7% of the leader · rank #3
Peterborough · near
81,836
Peterborough · near
81,836 median HH income
60.7% of the leader · rank #4
Baldwin City · this city
81,838
Baldwin City · this city
81,838 median HH income
60.7% of the leader · rank #5
Troy Grove · near
81,838
Troy Grove · near
81,838 median HH income
60.7% of the leader · rank #6
Hawthorne · highest
134,797
Hawthorne · highest
134,797 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 Baldwin City 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: 4,881.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Baldwin City - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Baldwin City lands in the 63rd percentile for household income and the 52nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
63rd
percentile, household income
54th
percentile, home value
6th
percentile, median rent
52nd
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: Baldwin City, KS
Kansas's Baldwin City is a small town, with 4,881 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Baldwin City report a median income of $81,838 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.5%. Baldwin City's housing stock carries a median value of $242,100, and the median resident age is 29.9 years. 45.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 56.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 10 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 67% from five years earlier. Baldwin City reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1308.9 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Kansas run below the national norm: the state registers 90.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $947 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $217 across Kansas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 29.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Baldwin City'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change 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 Baldwin City, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history.
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. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Baldwin City?
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 70.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Baldwin City?
Within Kansas, the closest population matches are Louisburg (5,034 residents, $75,556 income); Edwardsville (4,721 residents, $76,847 income); Concordia (5,067 residents, $50,213 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hawthorne, NY (4,881 residents); Needles, CA (4,882 residents); Eagleville CDP (Montgomery County), PA (4,880 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Baldwin City?
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 1308.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 43% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Is Baldwin City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +126 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 Baldwin City?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 45.9% 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.
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+
45.9%
Poverty estimate
3.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Baldwin City?
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 3.5%, 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
$81,838
Home value
$242,100
Value / income
3.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 A
90.1 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 A-
45.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C+
$81,838
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C
161 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Baldwin City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.9%
Poverty rate: 75/100 (B+) · 3.5%
Household income: 61/100 (C+) · $81,838
Violent crime: 56/100 (C) · 161 /100k
Where Baldwin City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Baldwin City'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 - Baldwin City highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Baldwin City, KS (this city): home $242,100, crime 1,309/100k
Needles, CA : home $134,400, crime 3,278/100k
Kimberly, ID : home $289,500, crime 409/100k
Carmi, IL : home $98,700, crime 1,574/100k
Farmington, ME : home $161,800, crime 1,536/100k
Louisburg, KS : home $257,600, crime 726/100k
Edwardsville, KS : home $165,700, crime 1,779/100k
Concordia, KS : home $96,100, crime 1,587/100k
Goddard, KS : home $203,500, crime 1,150/100k
Iola, KS : home $78,100, crime 2,494/100k
Colby, KS : home $150,700, crime 1,094/100k
How does Baldwin City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Baldwin City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income63% higher than other cities
Home value54% pricier than other cities
Median rent6% pricier than other cities
Safety52% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Kansas and the picture shifts: Baldwin City ranks #47 of 109 Kansas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Baldwin City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Kansas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Kansas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Baldwin City near the bottom of Kansas's cities
Among the 552 Kansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Baldwin City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Baldwin City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#76 of 527
86th percentile in Kansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 552
0th percentile in Kansas
Median Home Value
#33 of 527
94th percentile in Kansas
Poverty Rate
#405 of 552
26th percentile in Kansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#28 of 552
95th percentile in Kansas
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 Kansas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
63rd percentile nationally for median household income · 52nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Baldwin City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Baldwin City'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 Baldwin City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$242,10046th percentilemore affordable than 46% 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
Baldwin City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,464 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,502 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Baldwin City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,464 of 15,516 and #5,502 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
$81,838Baldwin City, KS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Baldwin City, KS median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Baldwin City, KS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,881
Median Income
$81,838
Median Home Value
$242,100
Median Age
29.9
Poverty Rate
3.5%
Labor force participation
56.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1308.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
161.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1147.8
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.
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
Baldwin City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,820 residents
2021
4,901 residents
2022
4,905 residents
2023
4,929 residents
2024
4,945 residents
2025
4,946 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
6
6
0
$1.5M
2020
37
9
28
$5.2M
2021
12
10
2
$2.9M
2022
13
7
6
$2.5M
2023
11
7
4
$2.3M
2024
10
8
2
$2.3M
Permit volume increased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
70.1%
Carpool
5.1%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
10.6%
Work from Home
14.0%
Based on 2,164 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Kansas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $217
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Kansas at $217 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Kansas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Baldwin City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Kansas's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.1 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Baldwin City is $947/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Kansas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 29.9 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Kansas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Baldwin City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Baldwin City compares to similar-size Kansas 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.