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Place dossier plate
SheetKS-EMPORIA-KS · Emporia, KS 24,098 pop · income 24th pct · 12 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 Emporia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Emporia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pittsburg · lowest
40,220
Pittsburg · lowest
40,220 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #1
Lawrenceburg · near
52,778
Lawrenceburg · near
52,778 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #2
Emporia · this city
52,787
Emporia · this city
52,787 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #3
Radford · near
52,791
Radford · near
52,791 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #4
Viborg · near
52,794
Viborg · near
52,794 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #5
Redwood · near
52,796
Redwood · near
52,796 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #6
Middletown · highest
115,252
Middletown · highest
115,252 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 Emporia 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: 24,098.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Emporia - the verdict
Emporia ranks in the 24th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
24th
percentile, household income
20th
percentile, home value
6th
percentile, median rent
20th
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: Emporia, KS
Kansas's Emporia is a small city, with 24,098 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Emporia report a median income of $52,787 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.0%. Home values in Emporia run a median of $127,500, and the median resident age is 30.2 years. 25.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 66.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 9 residential building permits were authorized in Emporia (Construction Slowdown), down 85% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2671.2 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). NOAA puts Emporia's yearly average temperature at 53.8°F with 35.8 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Kansas run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Kansas at 90.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $947 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Kansas run around $217, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 29.9 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Emporia'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 population change to housing and income to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Emporia, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Emporia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 grew by +36 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Emporia?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.0%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Emporia?
Within Kansas, the closest population matches are Gardner (24,020 residents, $92,579 income); Prairie (22,937 residents, $107,664 income); Junction City (22,431 residents, $60,317 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wekiwa Springs, FL (24,109 residents); Fresno, TX (24,087 residents); Middletown, DE (24,071 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 12 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Emporia?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 53.8°F, with 35.8 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Kansas is 29.9 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.
Mean temperature
53.8°F
Annual precipitation
35.8 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
29.9
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Emporia?
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 2671.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2302.0
Violent rate
369.2
Total reported rate
2671.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 25.8% 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
8
Bachelor's degree+
25.8%
Poverty estimate
11.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Emporia?
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 73.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.2%
Work from home
6.3%
Drive alone
73.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 12,360 workers age 16+.
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 C-
25.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$52,787
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
369 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Emporia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 25.8%
Poverty rate: 36/100 (F) · 11.0%
Household income: 24/100 (F) · $52,787
Violent crime: 24/100 (F) · 369 /100k
Where Emporia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Emporia'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 - Emporia highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Emporia, KS (this city): home $127,500, crime 2,671/100k
Middletown, DE : home $399,500, crime 1,668/100k
Shelbyville, TN : home $224,700, crime 2,343/100k
Collinsville, IL : home $157,700, crime 1,954/100k
Gardner, KS : home $276,000, crime 1,017/100k
Junction City, KS : home $162,500, crime 3,083/100k
Hays, KS : home $220,100, crime 1,694/100k
Pittsburg, KS : home $110,800, crime 3,860/100k
How does Emporia compare to other US cities?
Here's how Emporia stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income24% higher than other cities
Home value20% pricier than other cities
Median rent6% pricier than other cities
Safety20% 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: Emporia ranks #92 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 Emporia 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 Emporia near the bottom of Kansas's cities
Among the 552 Kansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Emporia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Emporia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#361 of 527
31st percentile in Kansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 552
0th percentile in Kansas
Median Home Value
#162 of 527
69th percentile in Kansas
Poverty Rate
#168 of 552
69th percentile in Kansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#162 of 552
70th 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
24th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Emporia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Emporia'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 Emporia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$127,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 80% 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
Emporia's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,569 of 15,516
More affordable than 77% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#297 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.4×, Emporia sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,569 of 15,516 and #297 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
$52,787Emporia, KS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Emporia, 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 Emporia, KS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
24,098
Median Income
$52,787
Median Home Value
$127,500
Median Age
30.2
Poverty Rate
11.0%
Labor force participation
66.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2671.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
369.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2302.0
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
53.8°F
Annual Precipitation
35.8"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Emporia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
24,101 residents
2021
24,031 residents
2022
24,035 residents
2023
24,146 residents
2024
24,240 residents
2025
24,137 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
60
12
48
$5.5M
2020
30
22
8
$5.2M
2021
64
16
48
$8.9M
2022
10
10
0
$2.3M
2023
44
10
34
$5.6M
2024
9
9
0
$2.4M
Permit volume decreased 85% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.9%
Carpool
13.1%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
5.4%
Work from Home
6.3%
Other
1.1%
Based on 12,360 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 Emporia. 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 Emporia 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 Emporia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Emporia 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, 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.