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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-ELK-CREEK-KY · Elk Creek, KY 2,344 pop · income 89th pct · 4 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 Elk Creek
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elk Creek on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Harlan · lowest
30,365
Harlan · lowest
30,365 median HH income
14.1% of the leader · rank #1
St. John · near
127,449
St. John · near
127,449 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #2
Lake Shore · near
127,453
Lake Shore · near
127,453 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #3
El Cerrito · near
127,475
El Cerrito · near
127,475 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #4
Elk Creek · this city
127,487
Elk Creek · this city
127,487 median HH income
59.3% of the leader · rank #5
Crowheart · near
127,500
Crowheart · near
127,500 median HH income
59.3% of the leader · rank #6
Anchorage · highest
215,156
Anchorage · highest
215,156 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 Elk Creek 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: 2,344.
Nationally, Elk Creek sits in the 89th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
89th
percentile, household income
73rd
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: Elk Creek, KY
Elk Creek is a small town in Kentucky, home to 2,344 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $127,487 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.1%. Elk Creek's housing stock carries a median value of $358,600, and the median resident age is 38.4 years. Educational attainment runs 38.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 69.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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). 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 Elk Creek'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist 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 Elk Creek, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Elk Creek?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.1%, 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 Elk Creek?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Fulton (2,345 residents, $36,037 income); Horse Cave (2,348 residents, $51,927 income); Carlisle (2,356 residents, $46,292 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Greenbriar, FL (2,344 residents); Alta, IA (2,344 residents); Lakeland, NY (2,344 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Elk Creek?
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 81.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
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.
Household income A
$127,487
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A
2.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.8%
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).
Elk Creek profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 89/100 (A) · $127,487
Poverty rate: 85/100 (A) · 2.1%
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 73/100 (B) · 38.8%
How does Elk Creek compare to other US cities?
Where Elk Creek sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income89% higher than other cities
Home value73% 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 Elk Creek 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 Elk Creek near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elk Creek ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elk Creek only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#32 of 485
93rd percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#37 of 484
92nd percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#415 of 519
20th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#115 of 520
78th 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
89th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Elk Creek's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$358,60027th percentilemore affordable than 27% 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
Elk Creek's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,656 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,903 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Elk Creek sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,656 of 15,516 and #4,903 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
$127,487Elk Creek, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elk Creek, 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 Elk Creek, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,344
Median Income
$127,487
Median Home Value
$358,600
Median Age
38.4
Poverty Rate
2.1%
Labor force participation
69.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.8%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.3%
Carpool
5.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
12.1%
Based on 1,240 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 Elk Creek. 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 Elk Creek 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 Elk Creek sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elk Creek 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, 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.