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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-CAVE-CITY-KY · Cave City, KY 2,545 pop · income 4th 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 Cave City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cave City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jeffersonville · lowest
33,636
Jeffersonville · lowest
33,636 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #1
St. Pauls · near
33,667
St. Pauls · near
33,667 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #2
Cave City · this city
33,672
Cave City · this city
33,672 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #3
Pin Oak Acres · near
33,674
Pin Oak Acres · near
33,674 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #4
McGehee · near
33,679
McGehee · near
33,679 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #5
Warrenton · near
33,687
Warrenton · near
33,687 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #6
Morris · highest
108,274
Morris · highest
108,274 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 Cave 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: 2,545.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cave City - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Cave City places in the 4th percentile for household income and the 93rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
4th
percentile, household income
12th
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: Cave City, KY
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,545 residents in Cave City, a small town within Kentucky. The typical household in Cave City brings in $33,672 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 18.4%. Cave City's housing stock carries a median value of $108,100, and the median resident age is 40.1 years. About 5.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 48.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Cave City reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 296.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $984 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kentucky's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 44.2 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cave 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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cave City, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, 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 Cave City?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Calvert City (2,522 residents, $42,566 income); Falmouth (2,577 residents, $38,177 income); Masonville (2,634 residents, $89,102 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bald Knob, AR (2,545 residents); Snow Hill, MD (2,545 residents); Dupont, PA (2,545 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 education layer cover for Cave City?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 5.9% 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 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 Cave City?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.4%, 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 does the journey to work look like in Cave 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 80.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cave 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 296.6 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
254.2
Violent rate
42.4
Total reported rate
296.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Cave 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 +39 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.7% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.7%
2025 estimate
2,398
2020 estimate
2,359
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 18.4% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kentucky average
F
City profile score · Cave City, KY
37/100
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.
Violent crime A
42 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Poverty rate F
18.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$33,672
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cave City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 86/100 (A) · 42 /100k
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Poverty rate: 16/100 (F) · 18.4%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $33,672
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.9%
Where Cave City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cave 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 - Cave City highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Cave City, KY (this city): home $108,100, crime 297/100k
Bald Knob, AR : home $136,500, crime 2,352/100k
Snow Hill, MD : home $194,300, crime 1,123/100k
Dupont, PA : home $142,100, crime 975/100k
Morris, AL : home $233,600, crime 491/100k
Calvert City, KY : home $157,400, crime 1,987/100k
Falmouth, KY : home $111,300, crime 950/100k
Louisa, KY : home $144,900, crime 1,054/100k
Cadiz, KY : home $120,800, crime 1,010/100k
How does Cave City compare to other US cities?
Where Cave City sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value12% 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, Cave City ranks #37 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 Cave City 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 Cave City near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cave City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cave City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#426 of 485
12th percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#357 of 484
26th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#164 of 519
68th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#452 of 520
13th 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
4th percentile nationally for median household income · 93rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cave City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cave 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 Cave City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$108,100Among 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
Cave City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,746 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,392 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Cave City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,746 of 15,516 and #6,392 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
$33,672Cave City, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cave City, 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 Cave City, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,545
Median Income
$33,672
Median Home Value
$108,100
Median Age
40.1
Poverty Rate
18.4%
Labor force participation
48.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
296.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
42.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
254.2
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
Cave City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,359 residents
2021
2,353 residents
2022
2,356 residents
2023
2,365 residents
2024
2,383 residents
2025
2,398 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.8%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.7%
Work from Home
5.6%
Based on 984 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 Cave City. 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 Cave City 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 Cave City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cave City 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.