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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-AUBURN-KY · Auburn, KY 1,715 pop · income 14th 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 Auburn
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Auburn on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Munfordville · lowest
23,879
Munfordville · lowest
23,879 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #1
Auburn · this city
46,071
Auburn · this city
46,071 median HH income
42.7% of the leader · rank #2
El Prado Esta… · near
46,071
El Prado Esta… · near
46,071 median HH income
42.7% of the leader · rank #3
Weldon · near
46,071
Weldon · near
46,071 median HH income
42.7% of the leader · rank #4
Newry · near
46,071
Newry · near
46,071 median HH income
42.7% of the leader · rank #5
Snead · near
46,075
Snead · near
46,075 median HH income
42.7% of the leader · rank #6
Audubon Park · highest
107,865
Audubon Park · highest
107,865 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 Auburn 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: 1,715.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Auburn - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Auburn lands in the 14th percentile for household income and the 93rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
17th
percentile, home value
10th
percentile, median rent
93rd
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: Auburn, KY
Kentucky's Auburn is a small town, with 1,715 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $46,071 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.3%. Auburn's housing stock carries a median value of $118,100, and the median resident age is 36.5 years. About 16.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 48.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 27 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 800% from five years earlier. Auburn reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 302.8 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Kentucky run below the national norm: the state registers 90.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $984 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kentucky's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 44.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Auburn'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 schools and households to housing and income to population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Auburn, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, 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. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Auburn?
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 81.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 16.3% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
How far does income reach against housing in Auburn?
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 16.3%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Auburn?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Audubon Park (1,717 residents, $107,865 income); Doe Valley (1,719 residents, $87,757 income); Midway (1,748 residents, $59,609 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hancock, MD (1,715 residents); Emerson, GA (1,716 residents); Fern Acres, HI (1,714 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.
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 Auburn 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 +158 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 27 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
+10.0%
2025 estimate
1,742
2020 estimate
1,584
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Auburn?
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 302.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 87% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
242.3
Violent rate
60.6
Total reported rate
302.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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
90.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime A-
61 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$46,071
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Auburn profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Violent crime: 81/100 (A-) · 61 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.3%
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.3%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $46,071
Where Auburn sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Auburn'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 - Auburn highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Auburn, KY (this city): home $118,100, crime 303/100k
Hancock, MD : home $175,000, crime 834/100k
Emerson, GA : home $209,700, crime 1,118/100k
Audubon Park, KY : home $354,500, crime 1,642/100k
Catlettsburg, KY : home $71,400, crime 753/100k
Munfordville, KY : home $107,800, crime 291/100k
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 Auburn compare to other US cities?
Where Auburn sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value17% pricier than other cities
Median rent10% pricier than other cities
Safety93% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Kentucky, Auburn ranks #38 of 181 Kentucky cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Auburn against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Kentucky only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Kentucky-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Auburn near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Auburn ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Auburn only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#327 of 485
33rd percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#311 of 484
36th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#192 of 519
63rd percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#290 of 520
44th percentile in Kentucky
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 Kentucky only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 93rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Auburn's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Auburn'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 Auburn's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$118,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 83% 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
Auburn's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,336 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,881 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Auburn sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,336 of 15,516 and #3,881 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
$46,071Auburn, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Auburn, KY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Auburn, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,715
Median Income
$46,071
Median Home Value
$118,100
Median Age
36.5
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Labor force participation
48.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
302.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
60.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
242.3
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Auburn's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,584 residents
2021
1,601 residents
2022
1,592 residents
2023
1,612 residents
2024
1,671 residents
2025
1,742 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
27
housing units authorized
Single-Family
27
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
15.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.3M
2020
3
3
0
$0.3M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
28
28
0
$8.0M
2023
24
22
2
$6.5M
2024
27
27
0
$8.2M
Permit volume increased 800% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.2%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
4.0%
Work from Home
2.9%
Based on 648 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Kentucky statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Kentucky at $225 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Kentucky statewide averages, not a meter reading for Auburn. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Kentucky's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.2 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Auburn is $984/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Kentucky statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 44.2 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Kentucky statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Auburn sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Auburn compares to similar-size Kentucky 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.