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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-CALHOUN-KY · Calhoun, KY 783 pop · income 21st 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 Calhoun
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Calhoun on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Gibsland · lowest
20,915
Gibsland · lowest
20,915 median HH income
18.4% of the leader · rank #1
Calhoun · this city
51,071
Calhoun · this city
51,071 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #2
Mesquite Creek · near
51,071
Mesquite Creek · near
51,071 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #3
Schram City · near
51,071
Schram City · near
51,071 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #4
Gravity · near
51,071
Gravity · near
51,071 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #5
Selden · near
51,071
Selden · near
51,071 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #6
Auxier · highest
113,565
Auxier · highest
113,565 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 Calhoun 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: 783.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Calhoun places in the 21st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
21st
percentile, household income
12th
percentile, home value
10th
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: Calhoun, KY
783 people live in Calhoun, Kentucky - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Calhoun brings in $51,071 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.3%. Calhoun's housing stock carries a median value of $106,500, and the median resident age is 46.9 years. About 7.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 44.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 4 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 100% from five years earlier.
Living costs in Kentucky run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Kentucky at 90.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $984 per month. 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 Calhoun'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 population change to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Calhoun, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Calhoun?
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.
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Salem (782 residents, $61,250 income); Whitley (782 residents, $31,250 income); Science Hill (790 residents, $53,542 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Butte Creek Canyon, CA (783 residents); Silver Cliff, CO (783 residents); Albany, IL (783 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Calhoun?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Calhoun?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Calhoun?
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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 7.2% 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.
Poverty estimate
17.3%
Bachelor's degree+
7.2%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
Household income F
$51,071
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
7.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Calhoun profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,071
Poverty rate: 18/100 (F) · 17.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 7.2%
How does Calhoun compare to other US cities?
Where Calhoun sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income21% higher than other cities
Home value12% pricier than other cities
Median rent10% 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 Calhoun 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 Calhoun near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Calhoun ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Calhoun only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#280 of 485
42nd percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#363 of 484
25th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#175 of 519
66th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#432 of 520
17th 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
21st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Calhoun's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$106,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 88% 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
Calhoun's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,948 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,848 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Calhoun sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,948 of 15,516 and #1,848 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
$51,071Calhoun, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Calhoun, 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 Calhoun, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)7.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
783
Median Income
$51,071
Median Home Value
$106,500
Median Age
46.9
Poverty Rate
17.3%
Labor force participation
44.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
7.2%
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
Calhoun's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
726 residents
2021
721 residents
2022
718 residents
2023
712 residents
2024
715 residents
2025
720 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.5M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
4
0
4
$0.5M
Permit volume increased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.5%
Carpool
8.4%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
7.0%
Work from Home
7.4%
Based on 298 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 Calhoun. 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 Calhoun 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 Calhoun sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Calhoun 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, 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.